Internet Media and the Rise of Populism

• In Event: Democracy, Autocracy and the Internet

Abstract

In 2018, Freedom House found that global freedom declined for the 13th consecutive year as populists continued to expand their footholds within countries across the world. Meanwhile, over a similar time period, membership in two of the world’s largest social media networks, Facebook and Twitter, climbed to over 2.7 billion users worldwide. Given the exponential increase in internet media usage, this paper seeks to systematically explore the effects of internet and social media on democratic decline by focusing on the strength of and electoral support for populist movements and political parties. Internet media offers a revolutionary mechanism for amplifying expression and participation within democracies as it geometrically expands the capacity for debate, organization, and personalized political engagement—however, as several scholars have noted, some of these attributes have simultaneously helped to rally popular legitimacy for groups with populist and anti-democratic agendas. We argue that by helping to spread populist ideals, mobilization, and collective action—internet media usage should result in greater strength and electoral support for populist parties and movements, especially in situations of concentration. Concentrated ownership over internet technologies grants significant leverage over the volume, content, and flow of online information—thereby empowering some elite groups to exploit internet media platforms in order to manipulate public opinion and intensify bases of support for the ultimate purpose of delegitimizing institutions of accountability and concentrating power. Using original data on internet ownership concentration, social media user traffic, and populist party vote share—our findings suggest that concentration of internet ownership and online audience each contribute to rising support for populist political parties and anti-system movements.

Authors

• Andrew Bennett, SUNY Binghamton

• Didem Seyis, Binghamton University (SUNY)