In this article, we examine two interrelated hashtag campaigns that formed in response to the Victorian State Government’s handling of Australia’s most significant COVID-19 second wave of mid-to-late 2020. Through a mixed-methods approach that includes descriptive statistical analysis, qualitative content analysis, network analysis, computational sentiment analysis and social bot detection, we reveal how a small number of hyper-partisan pro- and anti-government campaigners were able to mobilise ad hoc communities on Twitter, and – in the case of the anti-government hashtag campaign – co-opt journalists and politicians through a multi-step flow process to amplify their message. Our comprehensive analysis of Twitter data from these campaigns offers insights into the evolution of political hashtag campaigns, how actors involved in these specific campaigns were able to exploit specific dynamics of Twitter and the broader media and political establishment to progress their hyper-partisan agendas, and the utility of mixed-method approaches in helping render the dynamics of such campaigns visible.

中文翻译：

---

#IStandWithDan 与 #DictatorDan：推特讨论维多利亚 COVID-19 限制的两极分化动态

在本文中，我们研究了为响应维多利亚州政府对 2020 年中后期澳大利亚最重要的 COVID-19 第二波的处理而形成的两个相互关联的标签活动。通过内容分析、网络分析、计算情感分析和社交机器人检测，我们揭示了少数超党派的亲政府和反政府活动家如何能够在 Twitter 上动员临时社区，并且——在反政府主题标签活动——通过多步骤流程来选择记者和政治家来放大他们的信息。我们对来自这些活动的 Twitter 数据的综合分析提供了对政治标签活动演变的见解，