Diabetes on twitter: Influence, activism and what we can learn from all the food jokes

Governments across the world are increasingly using social media platforms like Twitter to disseminate health information and advice. Growing numbers of health departments and organisations have social media policies, and social media are now used by many as a low-cost tool for addressing so-called ‘lifestyle diseases’ such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. The effectiveness of these initiatives is generally measured in terms of the number of subscribers following social media accounts (e.g. see Public Health England, 2014). Government social media policies tend to focus on legal concerns such as regulating staff use and ensuring privacy protection, rather than citizen health outcomes or experiences (Fast et al., 2015).