Whipping (or Ignoring) the Cycle: Diaspora Communities and Protest Cycles

• In Event: From Crypto to AI: Mobilization On and Against New Platforms and Technologies (Virtual Session)

Abstract

What is the contribution of online mobilizations by expatriates/diaspora communities to the cycle of contention taking place at home? The literature suggests contradicting answers—some find that diaspora communities are heavily involved in the diffusion of protests at home while others suggest otherwise. Which one is it? In this paper, I suggest that online mobilization by diaspora communities can matter for the cycle of contention taking place at home depending on when it takes place. To do so, I develop two measures—a measure of positionality in the protest cycle and a measure of intensity of the protest cycle. I build a dataset ranging from 2011 to 2021, made of foreign protest events collected by ACLED on one hand, and tweets mobilizing support for these protests in the USA and Canada on the other. I show that online mobilization at specific points in the protest cycle help heavily intensify and accelerate said protest cycle . As a result, I suggest that expatriate/diaspora communities act as whips of protest cycles depending on when they engage with the protest movement.

Author

• Amir Abdul Reda, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, African Institute for Research in Economics & Social Sciences