Mexican Political Twitter Dataset (2018 Presidential Election)
Description
This dataset contains Twitter data collected during the 2018 Mexican presidential election campaign, focusing on mentions and tweets related to the main presidential candidates (@JoseAMeadeK, @RicardoAnayaC, @lopezobrador_, and @JaimeRdzNL). It represents a sample of 10,000 tweets from a larger dataset gathered as part of the research project "In-Context Learning for Misinformation Detection: Detecting Political Propaganda on Twitter Mexico using Large Language Model Meta AI". The dataset includes the following fields: tweet_id: Unique identifier for each tweet followers_count: Number of followers of the user who posted the tweet created_at: Original timestamp of tweet creation (UTC) local_time: Timestamp converted to Mexico City time zone tweet: Text content of the tweet source: Platform or application used to post the tweet This sample dataset was collected using the Twitter's streaming API in 2018. The script filtered the global Twitter stream for mentions of Mexico's presidential candidates. Several fields present in the original data collection have been removed from this sample to comply with Twitter's terms of service and to protect user privacy: Username (screen_name) Tweet URL Geographical coordinates User location information Only publicly accessible tweets (those without privacy restrictions set by users) were collected in the original dataset. This dataset serves as a sample to provide insights into the larger research project focusing on misinformation detection and political propaganda analysis in Mexican social media during the 2018 presidential campaign. The research applies large language models to detect patterns of misinformation in political discourse.
Files
Steps to reproduce
This dataset was collected in 2018 using Twitter's API, which has since undergone significant changes. The following steps describe the original data collection process, though exact reproduction is no longer possible due to X (formerly Twitter) API restrictions. Current Limitations As of 2025, exact reproduction is not possible because: Twitter's API (now X) requires paid access The streaming API endpoints have changed significantly Rate limitations are more restrictive Authentication methods have been updated Researchers interested in similar data collection today would need to: Obtain appropriate X API access (paid tier) Update the script to use current API endpoints and authentication methods Comply with current rate limitations and terms of service Consider using the Academic Research product track if eligible