Activist translators as citizen journalists on social media

Abstract This article focuses on social media accounts operating on Twitter (currently X) and YouTube. The accounts disseminated information about the war in Ukraine by translating diverse media content, including videos, phone calls, and TV programs primarily from Russian into English and sharing their translations on social media platforms. The account holders are examined both as activist translators and citizen journalists. The data for analysis is drawn from translation-based tweets posted on two widely followed Twitter/X accounts over ten days during a two-month period in 2023. The analysis considers the content, form, and view count of the tweets and the videos linked to them. Findings show that the translations achieved a broad reach and responded to a demand for information on writings and speeches that would otherwise be inaccessible to people without source language skills. Through translation, the accounts contributed to shaping the perceptions and collective memory of the war.