The Dynamics of Event-Based Political Influencers on Twitter: A Longitudinal Analysis of Influential Accounts During Chinese Political Events

The study examines the dynamics and multiplicity of political influencers on Twitter by focusing discussion six China-related events between 2017 2020. We consider influence as communication practices aimed to shape flow online information, a small number users who can disproportionately advance certain topics direct audience attention. Our analysis English Chinese data ( N = 2,349,852) shows that engage in through two roles: initiators amplifiers. While existing institutions such news outlets are originate individuals, trolls, bots flood social media share information provided other users. Moreover, results suggest largely event-dependent way few accounts remain influential across different events, times, language contexts. These findings our understanding from dynamic perspective.