Social Media as an Identity Barometer: Evidence from the Russia-Ukraine War
Journal: AEA Papers and Proceedings
Year: 2024

This study investigates how social media data can be used to study shifts in identity, focusing on Ukraine during the Russia-Ukraine war. We analyze VK users' reported language proficiency and the language of tweets and note a significant shift from Russian to Ukrainian during both the early (2014-2022) and later (2022-) phases of the war. Additionally, we observe a positive association at the province level between these language changes and shifts in ethnic identity reported in nationally repr