Facebook groups and network of demonstrators

A large body of research has documented the transformations brought about by social media in the new social movements known as ‘square’ or ‘crisis’ movements. Despite the strong democratic aspirations of the members of these movements, these studies reveal the ways in which individuals who have mastered digital tools use these communication channels to occupy an informal leadership position. In this article, we extend these results by looking at the organization of the Gilets jaunes (‘Yellow Vests’) movement in Nîmes. To this end, we intensively followed the movement on the ground and on social media between December 2018 and June 2019. We found that the leaders of the movement occupied a precarious position in relation to the other members who hoped for a horizontal distribution of power. A series of crises in which participants rejected the various organizers of collective action showed how the ability to maintain and expand the network of demonstrators through Facebook made it possible to justify a grip on the movement. This control was also contingent on an ability to impose oneself discreetly so as not to appear too authoritarian in the eyes of the other gilets jaunes.