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Chapter 242of the Department of Science and Innovation (formerly Department of Science and Technology), Blade Nzimande, no longer prioritised fracking, and both departments were no longer visible in the online debate. In addition, the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that the fracking regulations published by the Minister of Mineral Resources in 2015 would not be enforced (Andreasson, 2018; De Wit, 2011).In the online debate of the web sphere of the UK, different actors participated in 2018 and 2019; however, the controversy remained balanced with opposing, proposing and neutral actors. Most striking differences in participating actors was the absence in 2019 of the previously opponents Quackers.org and the Scottish government, the European Commission and Historic England (neutrals), and the UK Onshore Oil and Gas (proponents). Newcomers were some opposing local committees, such as the City of York Council and the North Yorkshire County Council. Larger organisations, such as the National Park Authority and Young People’s Trust for Environment, were also against hydraulic fracturing in the UK. In 2019, there were more academics active on the internet that had analysed possible impacts of fracking. Governmental organisations, such as the National Audit Office, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies and the Royal Academy of Engineering published technical reports. Finally, Exxon Mobil, Shell and Tendeka participated in the online controversy as proponents and investors on the British shale gas market in 2019. Remarkable shifts were (1) those from neutral to anti-fracking from the Lancashire County Council and Oil and Gas Authority between 2018 and 2019. This shift may have been caused by the publication of studies about local impacts of fracking, leading these actors to adopt the opponent discourse online; and (2) the UK Conservative Party and the UK Government changed from proponents to neutral precisely during the elections and the Brexit debate. This suggests that this topic was relevant for politics. No listed actor shifted the position from opponent to neutral or proponent.2.5.2 Which types of visuals does each position – pro, anti or neutral – use to depict their claims?We retrieved visuals from the URLs of the actors identified in 2018 (2,341 images) and 2019 (2,167 images) in the three web spheres. We analysed these visuals for similarities and differences in type of image and content and we also checked whether different positions in the debate led to different visualisations. Figure 2.2 shows a network of resembling images that the online actors used in 2018. Figure 2.3 shows those from 2019.1212 High-definition and interactive versions of these image networks are available in https://observablehq.com/@andreabenedetti/shale-gas-2018 and https://observablehq.com/@andreabenedetti/shale-gas-2019.Efrat.indd 42 19-09-2023 09:47