• The content analysis was performed exclusively for ‘viral’ tweets.

• Verified Twitter accounts were sought for the G7 members.

• Primary tweets meeting the inclusion criteria, plus any secondary tweets as part of a viral thread, were included in the analysis.

• No language restrictions were stipulated; Twitter’s built-in Google translate function was used for non-English tweets.

• Top tweet characteristics included ‘likes’, ‘retweets’, ‘comments’ and ‘viral tweets’.

• A ‘like’ indicates that a registered Twitter user appreciates the tweet, while a ‘retweet’ indicates that they have shared the tweet on their own Twitter page and a ‘comment’ indicates that they have added written commentary for the tweet. ‘Viral’ tweets means those which rapidly spread across a high number of users.