Can Authoritarian Propaganda Compete with the Opposition on Social Media? Experimental Evidence from Russia
49 Pages Posted: 4 May 2023 Last revised: 25 Mar 2024
Date Written: April 29, 2023
Abstract
We study the political effect of pro- and anti-regime social media videos on voting in Russia, a typical autocracy. We conducted a field experiment (N=798) before the 2018 presidential elections by promoting either propaganda or opposition YouTube videos among the respondents of a telephone survey before the election and following up with a survey of voting behavior after. We find state propaganda unable to engage online news consumers, yet it mobilized consumers of offline news to vote for Putin by improving perceptions of his competence. The opposition treatment discouraged votes for Putin among both groups.
Keywords: Propaganda, opposition, social media, autocracy, Russia, field experiment
JEL Classification: D72, D83, C93, P16
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