On Wednesday, Sept. 15, four prominent American gymnasts testified to the US Senate about the abuse they endured from former USA Gymnastics doctor and convicted sex offender Larry Nassar. McKayla Maroney, Simone Biles, Aly Raisman, and Maggie Nichols recapped how federal law enforcement and gymnastics officials let them down and allowed for the abuse to continue.
This Senate hearing comes years after Nassar was convicted for his crimes. On Dec. 7, 2017, he was sentenced to 60 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. He was later charged with 10 counts of sexual assault of minors, leading to a sentence of de factor life imprisonment without parole. In their Sept. 16 testimony, Maroney, Biles, Raisman, and Nichols profoundly condemned the FBI’s initial mishandling of the investigation.
“They chose to lie about what I said and protect a serial child molester rather than protect not only me but countless others,” said Maroney to the Judiciary Committee.
What has the conversation been like on social media? At the Social Media Listening Center, we used a search for keywords “Senate” and “Gymnastics,” “Senate” and “Larry Nassar,” and “Senate” and “Gymnasts.” The terms “Senate” and “Senate Hearing” have been widely used and are not specific enough to be included in this search. While this search may not be fully extensive, it provides a glimpse into the online conversation.
On Sept. 15 when the news was announced, the search found more than 35,600+ tweets discussing this topic. By Sept. 19 at 11:59 pm, the search found 68,382 mentions across all platforms. The overall sentiment of the search was 96.4% negative and 3.6% positive. It is difficult to gauge audience sentiment from sentiment analysis alone when discussing serious issues such as sexual assault. To get a better look at the conversation and the sentiment surrounding this topic, we paid close attention to the word cloud capturing the most common words and phrases associated with this search:
To gain even further understanding of the sentiment surrounding this news, we looked at the most commonly used hashtags related to this search. We found that #firewray, #simonebiles, #metoo, and #criminal are at the top. The hashtag #firewray is in reference to FBI director Christopher Wray, who has faced intense scrutiny for how poorly his agency handled the abuse allegations. When searching the keywords “Senate” and “Larry Nassar,” we found that some of the top themes of discussion the day the news was announced were “Senate Judiciary Committee,” “FBI,” “Abuse of Power,” and “Sex Abuse.”
Who is engaging in this conversation? Unsurprisingly, the majority of mentions surrounding this topic are from female Twitter users in the 18-35 age demographic located in the United States. The top influencers on Twitter are primarily news outlets, including The New York Times, Reuters, NBC News, and People. Senator Mazie Hirono and American politician Rudy Giuliani have been active voices in the conversation as well.
Today, @Simone_Biles, @McKaylaMaroney, @MagsGotSwag12, and @Aly_Raisman again courageously shone a light on the culture of complicity, exploitation, and abuse of power they experienced. They are right to demand better from the FBI, USA Gymnastics, and the Senate. pic.twitter.com/2L5vDSHVTL
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) September 15, 2021
The gymnasts whose abuse was covered up by the FBI indicates that the FBI systemic violation of the rights of all those involved with defending President Donald J. Trump was not isolated.
Didn’t this happen under James “Cardinal” Comey.
— Rudy W. Giuliani (@RudyGiuliani) September 15, 2021
The keyword search also revealed that Reddit users are engaging in r/Gymnastics, r/NoFilterNews, and r/TodayILearned. Several posts in r/Gymnastics were made in support of the gymnasts and their bravery, including one post featuring Maroney and Biles leaving Capitol Hill holding hands. The comments contained statements of support, including “Just two vaulting queens throwing down an evil empire” and “I hope this is a photo that is shown in history class.”
The volume trend of this conversation has steadily declined since the news was announced. However, this conversation is not over just yet. Last month, USA Gymnastics and hundreds of the victims filed a joint $425 million settlement, so it will be interesting to see what happens with this litigation. In the meantime, we’ll continue to monitor this topic and others from the Social Media Listening Center.
Author: Kendall Phillips
