Resisting Parliamentarians: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Ghana’s #DropThatChamber

The internet has revolutionized communication in ways that affect nearly every aspect of the world, including business, education, healthcare and politics. It has created new forms of communication and social interactions and has contributed to making the world a global village by breaking down geographical barriers and making it easier for people to connect with others (Chesebro et al. 2014). While internet censorship still exists in some parts of the world, the anonymity provided by the internet, including virtual private networks, encourages people to be more daring than in face-to-face communication. Given the internet’s impact on communication, the use of digital technologies to resist established power structures continues to occur frequently across the globe even though there are contexts where such digital resistance is challenging or unlikely due to specific sociopolitical issues like internet shutdown. The features of digital technologies, including accessibility, anonymity and openness, embolden ordinary people to promote or oppose sociopolitical issues based on shared interests, challenge undesirable social structures and articulate dissenting views (Fominaya and Gillan 2019). Therefore, one can assert that the internet has transformed the way citizens participate in civic matters and has facilitated new forms of advocacy, protests, civic engagement and social movements. That is, the internet via virtual communities like social media has become a tool for resistance and an avenue for (de)legitimizing ideologies (Ajiboye and Abioye 2019; Nartey 2022; Aminu 2024). Such digital resistance can take the form of online activism/protests, responding to neoliberalism using social media, centring marginalized voices on the internet, and amplifying the grievances of citizens for purposes of sociopolitical change....