Can You Hear Me Now? How Communication Technology Affects Protest and Repression

Area of Science:

• Social Sciences
• Political Science
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Commentators often claim cell phones enable protests, but empirical evidence is inconclusive.
• Existing research faces challenges with selection bias and contradictory findings on technology's impact on collective action.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the mechanisms by which cell phones influence protest incidence.
• To empirically evaluate the relationship between cell phone coverage expansion and protest activity.

Main Methods:

• Utilized high-resolution global data on cell phone coverage and protest incidence from 2007 to 2014.
• Employed difference-in-differences estimation to analyze the causal impact of cell phone coverage.

Main Results:

• Cell phone coverage significantly increases the probability of protest by over 50% on average.
• The positive effect of cell phone coverage on protests is amplified when it connects a locality to a larger population.

Conclusions:

• Cell phones facilitate collective action by reducing coordination costs and increasing transparency around state repression.
• Governments may be deterred from suppressing protests due to the increased visibility and potential public backlash facilitated by cell phone communication.