Busting the myth of “leaderless” movements: Crowd-enabled elites in digitally networked activism

Digitally networked activism is often said to be leaderless, a characterization that emphasizes bottom-up action by the “crowd” over centralized leadership structures and hierarchical organization. Drawing on advances in network science, this chapter argues instead that a few highly visible accounts — Crowd-Enabled Elites, or CEEs — can emerge organically in online activist networks as centers of power and influence. It also examines the types of accounts that are likely to become CEEs in hashtag networks through a case study of the #StopAsianHate movement, which gained prominence following anti-Asian attacks during Covid19. Network analysis of a corpus of X (previously Twitter) posts reveals most CEEs in this network were celebrities and fans; journalists, provocateurs, and legacy media organizations; and political leaders and institutions. The chapter discusses the implications of these findings for newer platforms being extensively used for activism, such as TikTok, and for the future of digital mobilization in an evolving social media landscape.