The digital punishment puzzle: The prevention and escalation effect of digital repression

The digitalisation of political expression impacted social movement organisation. The global proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) digitalised social movements towards networked collective action. This fuelled the optimism about ICTs as liberalisation tool. Yet, authoritarian regimes showed increasing sophistication in digital repression which urges to investigate the link between digital repression (DR) and mobilisation. I use complementary insights from connective action theory and disconnective action theory to address the research question: What is the effect of DR on mobilisation? By arguing DR is multi-dimensional, the goal of this analysis is to establish the relationship between DR and mobilisation in authoritarian regimes. To this end, I conduct a systematic, global analysis. With an OLS regression, my large-N study analyses authoritarian regimes from 2000 until 2021. The findings are qualitatively supported with two case studies to address...Show moreThe digitalisation of political expression impacted social movement organisation. The global proliferation of information and communication technology (ICT) digitalised social movements towards networked collective action. This fuelled the optimism about ICTs as liberalisation tool. Yet, authoritarian regimes showed increasing sophistication in digital repression which urges to investigate the link between digital repression (DR) and mobilisation. I use complementary insights from connective action theory and disconnective action theory to address the research question: What is the effect of DR on mobilisation? By arguing DR is multi-dimensional, the goal of this analysis is to establish the relationship between DR and mobilisation in authoritarian regimes. To this end, I conduct a systematic, global analysis. With an OLS regression, my large-N study analyses authoritarian regimes from 2000 until 2021. The findings are qualitatively supported with two case studies to address endogeneity concerns. On the one hand, I expect a prevention effect on mobilisation if DR is performed as long-term information manipulation. On the other hand, I hypothesise an escalation effect on mobilisation if DR is executed in form of a short-term information vacuum. Though the results are mixed, I conclude that there is initial support for both prevention and escalation effect of DR. I derive that DR is multi-dimensional and can prevent, but also escalate mobilisation.Show less

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The digital punishment puzzle: The prevention and escalation effect of digital repression