Regulations on Social Media in Kyrgyzstan: A Case Study of Authoritarian Internet Control

• In Event: Pop Culture and The Framing of Politics

Abstract

Kyrgyzstan went through a series of political chaos at the end of 2020. Mass protests and violent demonstrations took place in Bishkek, the capital city. Sadyr Japarov, a former political prisoner, was released under public pressure and managed to become the president of the nation. Amid the political movement, the Internet (more specifically, social media platforms) played a vital role in Japarov’s campaign. He has used social media to ignite public dissatisfaction and organize mass protests which finally led to nationwide chaos. His choice of language (Kyrgyz instead of Russian) and wording are proved successful in communicating with the target audiences and provoke populist sentiments.
However, researchers have expressed pessimistic attitudes towards online freedom under the new president. After Japarov came into power, he has come up with multiple regulations and laws on the Internet as part of the agenda to tighten authoritarian control in the country. In addition, several social media platforms are influenced by these regulations. For example, in August 2023 the government banned TikTok over “harmful effects on children’s health”.
In this project, I will use the events in Kyrgyzstan over the past three years as a case example to examine 1) how political figures use social media as a tool to communicate with the public and spark social movements, especially in authoritarian states; and 2) how authoritarian leaders regulate the Internet and what factors motivate them to do so.

Author

• Boyang Liu, Columbia University