Social Media and the Paradox of Repression: The Case of the Occupy Movement

• In Event: 277 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 12. Repression and Response

Abstract

Scholars have long debated the influence of repression on social movements. In this paper, we investigate how social media moderates the paradoxical relationship between repression and protest in the Internet age. Drawing on the case of the Occupy Movement, we show that situational repression facilitates the diffusion of Occupy protests to other cities, while systematic institutional repression limits diffusion. Herein, we reveal the critical role of social media: our results indicate that the presence of a city-specific Occupy Movement social media account not only facilitates the positive effect of situational repression on the diffusion of Occupy protests, but also buffers to some extent the deterrent effect of institutional repression. We further argue that social media positively moderates the effect of repression by contributing to the creation and dissemination of the repression injustice frame. This study has implications for the emerging literature on social movements in the Internet age by revealing how social media intervenes in the repression-mobilization relationship.

Authors

• Chan S. Suh, Cornell University

• Ion Bogdan Vasi, University of Iowa

• Paul Yunsik Chang, Harvard University