Facebook Post Resharing Dynamics During the 2020 U.S. Election

Aggregated information about all Facebook content reshared 100 or more times from July 1, 2020 through February 1, 2021. Each row corresponds to an individual reshare tree, capturing its size and depth at specific hours and days from the initial post. The data originates from the U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study, a partnership between Meta and academic researchers.

Use Cases

• Analyze the growth patterns of reshare tree size and depth over time to model viral diffusion dynamics.
• Correlate reshare tree depth with political attitudes and behaviors measured in the broader U.S. 2020 FIES study.
• Identify temporal patterns in reshare tree size by specific hours and days from the initial post to understand engagement cycles.
• Study the structural characteristics of high-reshare content trees to infer information spread mechanisms during the election period.

Strengths

• Data focuses on high-impact content, specifically posts reshared 100 or more times, providing a curated view of viral phenomena.
• Covers a critical 7-month period from July 2020 to February 2021, spanning the U.S. 2020 election and its aftermath.
• Provides tree-level metrics like size and depth at specific temporal intervals, enabling detailed diffusion analysis.
• Produced through a formal academic partnership (U.S. 2020 FIES) between Meta and researchers, suggesting structured data collection.

Limitations

• Dataset scope is limited to content achieving high reshare counts (100+), excluding the long tail of less viral posts.
• The specific number of rows (trees) and columns (features) is unknown, making it difficult to assess scale and granularity.
• Data is temporally bounded to a specific historical period and may not reflect current social media dynamics.

Provenance

Source

Meta Platforms, Inc., via the ICPSR Harvested Dataverse.

Collection Method

Aggregated from Facebook platform data as part of the U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study (US 2020 FIES).

Time Range

July 1, 2020 through February 1, 2021.

Freshness

Metadata was last updated on February 23, 2026, but the underlying data covers July 2020 to February 2021.

Geography

United States, based on the focus of the U.S. 2020 Facebook and Instagram Election Study.