Why are people putting ‘FBPE’ in their Twitter profile names?
A campaigner wearing a t-shirt in support of the pro-Remain cause. (Picture: Yui Mok) - Credit: PA Archive/PA Images
Anti-Brexit campaigners on Twitter are referencing the hashtag #FBPE in their posts and profile names to help build up a grassroots community of pro-EU posters.
The hashtag – which stands for 'Follow Back, Pro EU' – was created after campaigners sensed there was appetite for more grassroots networking on Twitter. Campaigners claimed that a pro-EU version of 'Followback Friday' had performed so well it branched into something bigger.
In a video posted to Twitter, Mike Galsworthy from Scientists4EU explained how it is helping with community building within the movement: 'It's a crucible for building up arguments… so we can all work together in crowdsourcing new information, or crowdsourcing responses to the major tweets and ideas out there.'
He disagreed with any criticism that this was creating an 'echo chamber' on Twitter, stating that it had been great for a clarifications of ideas.
You may also want to watch:
'On Facebook you've got lots of echo chambers. You've got lots of communities off the radar, whereas on Twitter you've got one big community… It's one big playground.
Most Read
- 1 Nigel Farage loses nearly 50,000 followers after Twitter suspends QAnon accounts
- 2 Michel Barnier tells UK to be 'very careful' in Brexit diplomatic status row
- 3 Fifteen ways to fix Britain
- 4 This chumocracy is costing our country
- 5 Holyrood in talks with EU to extend Erasmus scheme to Scottish students
- 6 Independent SAGE adviser gives scathing assessment of Priti Patel's £800 Covid fines
- 7 Susanna Reid takes on Priti Patel over government's gaslighting of public on coronavirus
- 8 Bob Geldof takes swipe at No 10 saying 'lying is second nature' to them
- 9 An actor whose politics were a touchy subject
- 10 Brexiteer says he'd never have voted for Brexit 'if we knew we'd lose our jobs'
'If the pro-EU community can empower itself and empower each other… the more we are connected, the more we are a community working together.'
• Follow The New European on Twitter at @TheNewEuropean, on Facebook, and also Instagram.
• Gift a subscription to The New European this Christmas. Get 26 issue for £30.
Become a Supporter
The New European is proud of its journalism and we hope you are proud of it too. We believe our voice is important - both in representing the pro-EU perspective and also to help rebalance the right wing extremes of much of the UK national press. If you value what we are doing, you can help us by making a contribution to the cost of our journalism.
