'We are 97%': Network and Content Analyses of Belarusian Grassroot Activism via Local Telegram Channels

• In Event: Digital Politics, Dissent, and Mobilization in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia

Abstract

This project analyzes the network structure and content of local Telegram chats in Belarus using the theoretical framework of connective action logic (Bennett & Segerberg, 2013) and its premises for organizing decentralized grassroot movements in the digital age. We argue that the network structure of these chats is crowd-enabled and resembles the dispersed power signature of the network of networks. With almost 800 local chats and over 440,000 unique users, this network follows the scale-free model (Barabási & Albert, 1999) with several important hubs of regional cities; however, it also has smaller hubs within country’s regions, smaller cities, and city districts, connecting parts of the network together and enabling coordination among members of various chats. This network also presents an opportunity to explore the role of Belarusian diasporas abroad and their central role in supporting pro-democratic movement.

This project demonstrates the role of local Telegram chats in enabling and sustaining pro-democratic movement in Belarus in the conditions of authoritarian political regime. These findings advance our understanding of digital technologies in social movements, while also pointing out its limitations against non-democratic regimes.

Author

• Steven Lloyd Wilson, Brandeis U