Volume 30, Issue 1, 2021
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.2032
Does formal or informal institution prevail regarding the perception of wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from French Tweets
Abstract
With the spread of COVID-19, many countries have issued different policies and
regulations on wearing masks to prevent the pandemic spread. While wearing surgical
masks is a major way to prevent COVID-19 in Asian countries, it is controversial in the
western world. French nations were sceptical on wearing masks as it is associated with
religion freedom suppression, gender inequality or even the infamous “the veil in school”
(le voile à l’école) incident. As the COVID-19 problem escalated, wearing masks proved to
be effective in reducing the spread of virus and many French-speaking nations had to
wear masks according to regulations and policies. This raised the questions, ‘What is the
French nations’ viewpoint?’ and ‘Does formal or informal institution prevail in wearing
masks during COVID-19?’ Through data mining from Twitter, this study attempted to
investigate how wearing mask (‘port du masque’) policies and regulations were perceived
by French-speaking countries during COVID-19. In total, 1288 French Tweets were
collected and analysed. While it may be expected that French Tweets regarding wearing
masks is primarily linked to health and culture, French Tweets on wearing masks were
mainly linked to laws and policies
Keywords
COVID-19, French, Twitter, Wearing masks, Regulation, Policy, Data mining