ABSTRACT
New forms of social media have been incorporated into an increasing number of political actions over recent years, yet the role, influence and importance of these technologies are contested. On 17 September 2011, a group of protesters set up the Occupy Wall Street camp in the New York City financial district. Within four weeks, Occupy protests had spread to hundreds of cities in 82 countries, and within a year, the Occupy Wall Street website had over 130,000 Facebook ‘likes’ and had been the subject of over 35,000 tweets (www.occupywallst.org). But do social media statistics merit a mention in this description of political action? Are they statistics that describe and measure a social movement, or a (t)wittering distraction from the ’real’ activity of politics?
