Impact of Twitter Endsars Hashtag Advocacy on Citizen Mobilization on Police Brutality in Nigeria

The emergence of Twitter and its usage in Nigeria’s hacktivism process has afforded Nigerians the opportunity of assessing the divergent roles of social media; one of the various phenomena of social media is the propensity of online opinion leadership and online influencers. In spite of all the studies conducted to understand effect of Twitter on users, little or nothing is known about the extent of the influence of Twitter on the users in Nigeria online community towards Endsars protest. Therefore, this study investigated Impact of Twitter Endsars Hashtag on Citizen Awareness on Police Brutality in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: (i) to identify the level of Twitter usage among #Endsars protests; (ii) identify and ascertain the role of Twitter in social movements and how it influenced the protesters; (iii) set to examine the impact of Twitter on the #Endsars protest and how it eventually curb or reduce Police brutality across Nigeria and (iv) examine the extent of influence social media influencers have on their followers opinions and decisions/behaviour as well as the interacting factors that determine the role of Twitter as a tool for change in its use to mobilise the #Endsars protest. This study adopted a mixed method comprising of online survey of social media followers and a content analysis of influencers’ posts across the three themes of interest: marketing, advocacy and political. Three hundred and ninety two (392) respondents were drawn purposively and a structured online questionnaire was administered through the identified influencers that they followed. Fourteen (14) posts from seven (7) influencers’ timeline were also purposively selected for analysis. The study found that Twitter influenced Citizen Awareness greatly on police brutality. It also found that the dimensions of Twitter influencers have on their followers are reinforced by their display of high political knowledge and vastness on the police brutality issues. Lastly, it found that Twitter exert a relatively acceptable level of influence on the opinions and decisions of users on hashtags. The study concluded that influencers have a high level of influence on their followers as a result of their innovativeness, knowledge and expertness as well as their informative and facilitative strategies. The study therefore recommended that media literacy among youths should be enhanced to increase their capacity for following Twitter influencers reasonably and not just for the trend of it.