Protesting in the digital age: how does digital Information and communication technology alter the landscape of mass political mobilization

Abstract

This literature review investigates the impact of digital information and communication technology (ICT) on mass political mobilization. By reviewing five empirical cases with diversified technologies and regime types, I find that the diffusion of digital ICT has an overall positive effect on protest turnout. To find sources for the potential mechanism behind the fostering effect, I refer to the Liberation Technology hypothesis by Diamong (2010) and the theoretical model by Little (2016). The analysis in the model suggests that digital ICT potentially facilitates protests through airing antiregime content and spreading the logistic information of protest coordination. The empirical studies mostly focus on examining whether the adoption of digital ICT is causal to the protest break out. The evidence covers large-scale protests from both democratic and non-democratic countries, as well as different technologies (mobile phones, the broadband Internet, and social media platforms). Though not all digital ICT is causal to the protest incidence, the studies yield mostly positive conclusions about its acceleration of protests. Additionally, the empirical evidence shows that the primary mechanisms through which digital ICT affects mass mobilization are information and coordination channels.