Social Media, Self-Legitimation and Regional International Organizations

• In Event: Autocracies and International Organizations

Abstract

This paper analyses the use of social media by autocracies-led international organizations: Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), the Eurasian Economics Union (EAEU) both led by Russia, and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) led by China, over the Pandemic Crisis 2020. The project investigates how each IO engages in self-legitimation over the crisis using social media (Twitter, Facebook, and VKontakte). The project discovers significant imitation on the part of the EDB and EAEU of the European Commission social media. The AIIB seems to echo the statements of the EBRD over the crisis of Pandemic. Overall, the AIIB seems to be more effective in terms of using social media than the EDB and the EAEU. The EDB and EAEU also try to target “regional” audience using Russian as lingua-franca, while having little to offer in English Social Media (e.g., in Twitter). Authoritarian IOs engage in mimicry of democratic IOs. This can be done by monitoring all three IOs social media feeds to ascertain which organisation first raised self-legitimation tools.

Author

• Anastassia V. Obydenkova, IBEI - Institut Barcelona D'Estudis Internacionals