Does the Introduction of Facebook Increase Political Violence and Civil Harms?

• In Event: Poster Session: Political Communication

Abstract

On October 3, 2021, ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen commented in a 60-minutes interview, "We had a joke inside of civic integrity that if you wanted to know what the next batch of at-risk countries was going to be, all you had to do was look 2 years in the past at what the Facebook connectivity countries were...". This paper assesses if the introduction of Facebook, especially in low-connectivity countries, increases political violence and other forms of civil harm. The study first creates a database of country-level conflict fragility and political violence from 2008 to 2021, drawing on data from Conflict Barometer, Uppsala University, and the World Bank. The dataset is then expanded to include other forms of civil harm including displacement, terrorism and democratic decline. Next, the data is examined in relation to data on the introduction and growth of Facebook in the same countries over the same periods, with a special focus on the introduction of Free Basics, Facebook’s program to offer the internet without data charges in low-connectivity countries. In this first analysis, various lag times including 2 years are included. Next, the study examines the impact at different Facebook penetration rates (10%, 20% and 50%). Finally, the impact is examined with consideration of various intervening variables in the same countries.

Author

• Babak Bahador, George Washington University