Can You Hear Me Now? How Communication Technology Affects Protest and Repression.

ABSTRACT: Commentators covering recent social movements, such as the Arab Spring, commonly claim that cell phones enable protests. Yet, existing empirical work does not conclusively support this contention: some studies find that these technologies actually reduce collective action; many others struggle to overcome the selection problems that dog observational research. We propose two mechanisms through which cell phones affect protests: (1) by enabling communication among would-be protesters, cell phones lower coordination costs; and (2) these technologies broadcast information about whether a protest is repressed. Knowing that a larger audience now witnesses and may be angered by repression, governments refrain from squashing demonstrations, further lowering the cost of protesting. We evaluate the

SUBMITTER: Christensen D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6461378 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature