The number of comments on Chiang Wanan’s Facebook posts soared past 430,000. Scholars analyze: Anti-Chiang energy may turn into physical voting

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wanan recently posted on Facebook questioning Democratic Progressive Party Taipei mayoral candidate Shen Boyang's past drug policies, asking the opponent to "not cover up with the Mesa Winter Plan." As soon as the post came out, the comment area was flooded with comments, and the media described it as "breaking the Guinness World Record." Communication scholar Du Shengcong believes that

Most of these commenters are angry and vocal in their opposition. The anti-Chiang Internet energy may be transformed into physical voting actions. The blue camp's organizational mobilization to urge votes has begun, and the two sides are facing off against each other.

According to Du Shengcong's analysis, the number of comments on this post grew very quickly. It exceeded 100,000 in about 2 hours after the post was posted. From early morning to noon (just a few hours), it soared from 287,000 to 411,000. The post accumulated more than 430,000 comments within one day of posting. The "world record" in the media's mouth refers to the Guinness World Record for "the most comments on a single Facebook item in 24 hours" (the current official record is 377,004 set by an Indian group in 2012). Jiang Wanan’s post indeed set an astonishing record for Facebook.

He said that among global social platforms (such as IG), the top ones with the most comments in a short period of time: Argentinian musician Bizarrap x Paulo Londra (IG, 23 million comments), American internet celebrity MrBeast (IG, about 13 million comments), soccer king Messi’s World Cup winning photo (IG, more than 7 million comments), and Jiang Wanan’s Facebook post ranked about 7th. But while others were "co-involved in the grand event," Jiang Wanan was "angry." Most of the main commenters were dissatisfied netizens. They not only dug out his past proposals when he was a legislator and questioned his standards, but also triggered a new wave of trolling due to the controversy over "deleting comments."

The opposition camp to this incident has demonstrated a high degree of mobilization on the Internet. The blue camp used to rely on traditional organizations such as district chiefs, local gangs, societies, temples, and grassroots party committees. If the anti-Chiang Internet energy is successfully transformed into physical voting actions, and the traditional blue camp launches an organization to urge votes, the two sides will face off head-on.