Enemy at the Gate: Evolution of Twitter User's Polarization During National Crisis

Social networks are effective platforms to study the real-life behavior of users. In this paper, we study users' political polarization during the times of crisis and its relation to nationalism. To this purpose, we focus on the reaction of Indian and Pakistani Twitter users during February 2019 crisis and the ensuing Indian General Elections in 2019. We show that a national crisis affects the polarization and discourse in both countries. Also, we show that user activities increase during a national crisis, and political discourse strengthens while polarization decreases on critical days. Finally, we highlight the links between this crisis and the Indian elections and show how the political parties discussed the crisis in their campaigns.