24-hour look at public sentiment on #TaxReform OR #GOPTaxScam

Republicans discussing new tax law. AP PHOTO

NEW YORK — With the passage of a massive tax reform bill in both houses of Congress, social media is weighing in on the legislation.   Since the initial passage less than 48 hours ago, more than 1.9 million social posts have discussed tax reform, according to international social media analysis firm Talkwalker.

Social media posting peaked between 1 and 6 p.m. December 20, with more than 331,000 posts in that time period.

Much of the conversation has been driven by political leaders, with the top Tweet belonging to President Donald Trump, eliciting more than 161,000 reactions (likes and reTweets). https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/943362605258813441

On the other side of aisle is this Facebook video from Senator Bernie Sanders, which garnered 94,000 reactions but was viewed more than 4.3 million times.  https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?id=9124187907&story_fbid=10156599145642908.

But what does social media think of the tax reform bill overall?  According to Talkwalker’s data on sentiment surrounding the plan, only 13.5 posts are positive, while 41.3 percent are negative, with 45.2 percent neutral.

Given the overall sentiment, it is ironic that top trending hashtags are #TaxReform (142,503) and #MAGA (71,098).  However, the third most popular hashtag is #GOPTaxScam (53,776) and #GOPTaxBillScam has 10,230 mentions, while #MerryChristmasAmerica has been mentioned 8,700 times.

And while the list of celebrities trending around the topic is dominated by political figures, one Hollywood name made the top list.  In fact, Rosie O’Donnell was the second most mentioned celebrity with more than 13,400 mentions (behind Speaker of the House Paul Ryan with 18,600).  The comedienne faced social media backlash after reportedly offering to pay two Republican Senators millions if they voted against the tax cuts bill — with her critics calling it bribery.  This Tweet received more than 8,000 reactions.  https://twitter.com/Thomas1774Paine/status/943363661762125824

About Talkwalker

Talkwalker (www.talkwalker.com) is one of the world’s leading social data intelligence companies. Its cutting edge technology provides actionable social media insights through real-time social listening and advanced social media analytics. Talkwalker helps marketers to prove the value of their social efforts and significantly enhances the speed and accuracy of business decision-making. Talkwalker’s state of the art social intelligence platform monitors and analyzes online conversations on social networks, news websites, blogs, forums and more, in over 187 languages. Its 1500 servers process posts from 150 million websites every day.