Social Media Talks Puerto Rico

Who’s talking about Puerto Rico on social media, and what are they saying?

As of this writing, according to SocialMention.com, Puerto Rico is being mentioned on social media every 47 seconds. Most of the mentions are related to Hurricane Maria, with updates and calls for more help for the Island. For these general posts about Puerto Rico, sentiment is 1:1 — that is, half are positive and half are negative.

SocialMention also tracked mentions of “Puerto Rico statehood.” This topic is being mentioned every 7 minutes, and 3/4 of the posts on the subject are positive.

Some of the tweets we see:

• Puerto Rico is still largely without power… Ya’ll realize they ARE America, right? …except they have no representation, no vote… They exchanged that for support and protection, which we apparently aren’t giving. They should demand full statehood or full autonomy now.
• “We’re not sure now what we’ll get first here in Puerto Rico,” says one La Perla resident, “power or statehood.”
• All federal employees in Puerto Rico pay federal income tax, and all citizens pay import/export taxes, federal commodity taxes and federal payroll taxes, such as Social Security, and Medicare taxes. And they always vote in favor of statehood. The last vote was 97% in favor.
• @SenSanders Thank you but please do not forget that the people of Puerto Rico spoke clearly for statehood. #StatehoodForAllAmericans
• It’s time to rebuild, and it’s right to rebuild Puerto Rico as a state. Join us in the progress toward statehood. #PR51st #PuertoRico #StatehoodNow
• @RepJenniffer Ms. Gonzalez, to incorporate Puerto Rico for tax reform and other God given rights under the Constitution is a step in the right direction. I applaud your efforts. Please don’t forget about the commitment with statehood – that is a promise that must be fulfilled!

We’re also seeing anti-statehood posts, even though they are outnumbered 3 to 1. For example, here’s one from our Facebook page:

• Ela… the best of two worlds…. us and PR United

ELA really isn’t Puerto Rico and the U.S. united. As a state, Puerto Rico would be part of the United States, permanently, with full rights and responsibilities. Full participation in U.S. democracy, too.

Under ELA, Puerto Rico is a territory belonging to the United States. As a territory, Puerto Rico isn’t even fully covered by the U.S. Constitution. Congress could force independence on Puerto Rico, give it back to Spain, or sell it to China. We don’t think those things will happen, but they could under the current law.

We also still see a lot of misinformation:

• Puerto Rico is not a territory it’s a country with its own Constitution. Puerto Ricans in the island call it a Commonwealth.

“Commonwealth” has no legal meaning in the United States. Kentucky, for example, is a commonwealth. It’s a state, just like California, but it calls itself a commonwealth. Puerto Rico is a territory, but it calls itself a commonwealth.

Social media has a lot of influence. Tweet your congressional representatives and let them know that you want statehood for Puerto Rico. Then sign up with us so we can keep in touch. The time for statehood is now.