University of Leeds research focusing on the online controversy surrounding shale gas development in Lancashire. The data corpus is made up of 37 semi-structured interviews with individuals who were active online in relation to shale gas and fracking. The interviews were conducted between March 2017 and August 2018, contextualised by attendance at industry conferences, public meetings, and planning inquiries. The data presented suggests that the seismic events induced by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in 2011 in combination with the Government framing of public scepticism as a matter of information deficitm led to an online information divide which constrained how effectively the dominant institutional actors could engage. Between 2011 and 2017, three challenges of online information – complexity, overload and loss of gatekeepers – served to perpetuate this division. Anti-shale gas campaigners were less constrained in their activity, but the substantial burden of online activism contributed towards perceptions of disempowerment, as improved information access failed to deliver policy influence. The ultimate consequence was to contribute towards the turn to direct action.