Posted April 9, 2020
Acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly has resigned and an analysis by the University of South Carolina Social Media Insights Lab helps explain why it had become untenable for him to stay in the position. Most of the top hashtags and retweets were related to the firing or resignation of Modly.
Social media comments nationally and here in South Carolina have been overwhelmingly negative since Modly flew to Guam to rebuke the crew of a U.S. aircraft carrier and criticize ousted Captain Crozier. Nationally, conversations were mostly negative (58%) or neutral news (40%).
In South Carolina, a state with a heavy presence of active and retired military, the reactions were even more negative. Negative sentiment was 68% and neutral sentiment was 31%. Virtually every post featuring opinion objected to Modly's actions.
In a time when #COVID19 dominates social media, users across the country overwhelmingly disagree with Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly's actions." said Lab Manager Kaitlyn Park. "More than 240,000 posts were analyzed. We rarely see such a consensus."