Speaking Up Online When It’s Costly: Evidence from Russia, 2022

Repression raises the cost of protest, potentially limiting entry. Yet its effect after entry is less clear: conditional on participating under repression, do individuals disengage quickly or persist? Twitter activity around the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine—amid repressive laws and throttled platform access—offers a useful test. Antiwar-hashtag posts are linked to account metadata to identify likely Russia-based users. The results show a shift from breadth to depth: likely Russia-based participation is narrower (fewer active and new participants) but more persistent and intense among those who participate. The findings contribute to research on authoritarian politics, repression, and digital media in collective action. 

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The Mittelbaukollowuium is a weekly Wednesday colloquium for doctoral students and postdocs at the MZES organized by the staff representatives. It also serves as a venue for our visiting fellows to present their research. If you have any questions about the Kolloquium, feel free to get in touch with Oliver Rittmann.