Virality Analysis of “Biden’s ‘Bernie brothers’ remark lights up social media”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/06/joe-biden-bernie-brothers-twitter-123310

It is never a surprise to go onto a major social media site and see a political figure trending on the homepage.

Earlier in 2020 Biden unintentionally created a national hashtag targeted at hardcore Bernie Sanders supporters, the “Bernie brothers.”

While discussing how he doesn't want the Democratic primary to turn into a bloodbath he acknowledges and directs his statement towards a select group of Sanders’ supports which have been known to enforce Sanders’ political ideologies over social media.

Although the statement was intended in a joking manner many people understood his message.

For Biden, “Bernie brothers” worked in his favor because of how far across the country it trended and the way media sites picked up the hashtag as a way to gain more information around Bernie supporters.

In terms of political virality, this perfectly illustrates how an idea can get reinforced into the public without the main figure ever having to explain or reiterate their point of view. Many people understood that Biden was not threatened or worried about “Bernie brothers” because they are known to go after opposing candidates' policies regardless of political affiliations.

Since the hashtag went viral it was also an easy way for Biden’s voice to be attached with the message without having to be vocal again about “Bernie brothers” beyond that point.

Sadly, many people have already made acknowledgments to the section of Bernie supports who appear to be more aggressive over social media. But because of their lack of social status, their insight didn't gain traction.

This all leads back to power-law disruption which states that “the attention-rich get richer.” Since Biden already has a social media presence many were able to gather more information from his Twitter. When smaller media outlets started to cover “Bernie brothers” the hashtag already had its moment of fame and was beginning to go away.