The DOI matches its Crossref record; 88 of the 90 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 2 are not checked yet.
Political Effects of the Internet and Social Media
Open accessAbstract
How do the Internet and social media affect political outcomes? We review empirical evidence from the recent political economy literature, focusing primarily on work that considers traits that distinguish the Internet and social media from traditional off-line media, such as low barriers to entry and reliance on user-generated content. We discuss the main results about the effects of the Internet in general, and social media in particular, on voting, street protests, attitudes toward government, political polarization, xenophobia, and politicians’ behavior. We also review evidence on the role of social media in the dissemination of fake news, and we summarize results about the strategies employed by autocratic regimes to censor the Internet and to use social media for surveillance and propaganda. We conclude by highlighting open questions about how the Internet and social media shape politics in democracies and autocracies.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Part of this trend might be explained by the Internet's informing users about government corruption (Zhuravskaya et al. 2020).”
From Social Media and Morality. (2024) · cites this paper as Zhuravskaya et al. 2020
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
The spread of true and false news online
Vosoughi, S., Roy, D., & Aral, S. (2018) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aap9559 · Cited by 8,847
Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election
Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.31.2.211 · Cited by 6,767
Exposure to ideologically diverse news and opinion on Facebook
Bakshy, E., Messing, S., & Adamic, L. A. (2015) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aaa1160 · Cited by 3,245
A 61-million-person experiment in social influence and political mobilization
Bond, R. M., Fariss, C. J., Jones, J. J., Kramer, A. D. I., Marlow, C., Settle, J. E., & Fowler, J. H. (2012) · Nature · doi:10.1038/nature11421 · Cited by 2,575
How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression
KING, G., PAN, J., & ROBERTS, M. E. (2013) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055413000014 · Cited by 2,415
Müller, J.-W. (2016) · doi:10.9783/9780812293784 · Cited by 2,219
The net delusion: the dark side of Internet freedom
Murphy, D. M. (2011) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.48-7161 · Cited by 1,907
Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election
Grinberg, N., Joseph, K., Friedland, L., Swire-Thompson, B., & Lazer, D. (2019) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.aau2706 · Cited by 1,803
Less than you think: Prevalence and predictors of fake news dissemination on Facebook
Guess, A., Nagler, J., & Tucker, J. (2019) · Science Advances · doi:10.1126/sciadv.aau4586 · Cited by 1,652
Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2006) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/499414 · Cited by 1,274
Political Polarization on Twitter
Conover, M., Ratkiewicz, J., Francisco, M., Goncalves, B., Flammini, A., & Menczer, F. (2011) · Zenodo · doi:10.5281/zenodo.4589064 · Cited by 1,254
#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media
Sunstein, C. R. (2017) · doi:10.1515/9781400884711 · Cited by 1,153
Handcuffs for the Grabbing Hand? Media Capture and Government Accountability
Besley, T. J., & Prat, A. (2006) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.96.3.720 · Cited by 1,126
KING, G., PAN, J., & ROBERTS, M. E. (2017) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055417000144 · Cited by 1,028
Ideological Segregation Online and Offline *
Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2011) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjr044 · Cited by 980
The Trade Origins of Economic Nationalism: Import Competition and Voting Behavior in Western Europe
Colantone, I., & Stanig, P. (2018) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12358 · Cited by 877
The welfare effects of social media
Allcott, H., Braghieri, L., Eichmeyer, S., & Gentzkow, M. (2020) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20190658 · Cited by 857
Trends in the diffusion of misinformation on social media
Allcott, H., Gentzkow, M. A., & Yu, C. (2019) · Research & Politics · doi:10.1177/2053168019848554 · Cited by 745
The European Trust Crisis and the Rise of Populism
Algan, Y., Guriev, S., Papaioannou, E., & Passari, E. (2017) · Brookings Papers on Economic Activity · doi:10.1353/eca.2017.0015 · Cited by 693
Diamond, L. (2010) · Journal of Democracy · doi:10.1353/jod.0.0190 · Cited by 639
Fanning the Flames of Hate: Social Media and Hate CrimePreprint
Müller, K., & Schwarz, C. (2020) · Journal of the European Economic Association · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3082972 · Cited by 625
Persuasion: Empirical Evidence
Dellavigna, S., & Gentzkow, M. (2010) · Annual Review of Economics · doi:10.1146/annurev.economics.102308.124309 · Cited by 615
Lorentzen, P. (2014) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12065 · Cited by 602
The dynamics of protest recruitment through an online network
González-Bailón, S., Borge-Holthoefer, J., Rivero, A., & Moreno, Y. (2011) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep00197 · Cited by 571
Nyhan, B. J., Porter, E. V., Reifler, J., & Wood, T. (2017) · Political Behavior · doi:10.1007/s11109-019-09528-x · Cited by 557
Why Resource-poor Dictators Allow Freer Media: A Theory and Evidence from Panel Data
EGOROV, G., GURIEV, S., & SONIN, K. (2009) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055409990219 · Cited by 546
Radio and the Rise of The Nazis in Prewar Germany *
Adena, M., Enikolopov, R., Petrova, M., Santarosa, V., & Zhuravskaya, E. (2015) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjv030 · Cited by 546
Self-citationGuess, A. M., Nyhan, B. J., & Reifler, J. (2018) · Cited by 544
Processing political misinformation: comprehending the Trump phenomenon
Swire‐Thompson, B., Berinsky, A. J., Lewandowsky, S., & Ecker, U. K. H. (2017) · Royal Society Open Science · doi:10.1098/rsos.160802 · Cited by 542
Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China's Great Firewall
(2018) · Project Muse (Johns Hopkins University) · doi:10.23943/9781400890057/html · Cited by 508
Social Media and Protest Participation: Evidence From Russia
Enikolopov, R., Makarin, A., & Petrova, M. (2020) · Econometrica · doi:10.3982/ecta14281 · Cited by 489
Self-citationFetzer, T. (2019) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20181164 · Cited by 477
The Hostile Audience: The Effect of Access to Broadband Internet on Partisan Affect
Lelkes, Y., Sood, G., & Iyengar, S. (2017) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12237 · Cited by 476
Boxell, L., Gentzkow, M., & Shapiro, J. M. (2017) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1706588114 · Cited by 467
Information Manipulation, Coordination, and Regime Change*
Edmond, C. (2013) · The Review of Economic Studies · doi:10.1093/restud/rdt020 · Cited by 433
Reverse-engineering censorship in China: Randomized experimentation and participant observation
King, G., Pan, J., & Roberts, M. E. (2014) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1251722 · Cited by 422
Halberstam, Y., & Knight, B. G. (2016) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2016.08.011 · Cited by 417
From Liberation to Turmoil: Social Media And Democracy
Tucker, J. A., Theocharis, Y., Roberts, M. E., & Barberá, P. (2017) · Journal of Democracy · doi:10.1353/jod.2017.0064 · Cited by 395
The Consequences of the Internet for Politics
Farrell, H. (2012) · Annual Review of Political Science · doi:10.1146/annurev-polisci-030810-110815 · Cited by 387
Liberation Technology: Mobile Phones and Political Mobilization in Africa
Manacorda, M., & Tesei, A. (2016) · Econometrica · doi:10.3982/ecta14392 · Cited by 384
Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America
Settle, J. E. (2018) · doi:10.1017/9781108560573 · Cited by 377
The Power of the Street: Evidence from Egypt’s Arab Spring
Acemoğlu, D., Hassan, T. A., & Tahoun, A. (2017) · Review of Financial Studies · doi:10.1093/rfs/hhx086 · Cited by 366
van Kessel, S. (2015) · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · doi:10.1057/9781137414113 · Cited by 359
Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda
Qin, B., Strömberg, D., & Wu, Y. (2017) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.31.1.117 · Cited by 353
The Critical Periphery in the Growth of Social Protests
Barberá, P., Wang, N., Bonneau, R., Jost, J. T., Nagler, J., Tucker, J., & González-Bailón, S. (2015) · PLOS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0143611 · Cited by 348
Importing Political Polarization? The Electoral Consequences of Rising Trade Exposure
Autor, D., Dorn, D., Hanson, G., & Majlesi, K. (2016) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w22637 · Cited by 344
Networked discontent: The anatomy of protest campaigns in social media
González‐Bailón, S., & Wang, N. (2013) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2015.07.003 · Cited by 311
E-Lections: Voting Behavior and the Internet
Falck, O., Gold, R. S., & Heblich, S. (2014) · Social Science Research Network · doi:10.1257/aer.104.7.2238 · Cited by 302
A Decade of Online Advertising Research: What We Learned and What We Need to Know
Liu–Thompkins, Y. (2019) · Journal of Advertising · doi:10.1080/00913367.2018.1556138 · Cited by 268
The populist temptation: economic grievance and political reaction in the modern era
Subacchi, P. (2019) · International Affairs · doi:10.1093/ia/iiz064 · Cited by 259
3G Internet and Confidence in Government
Guriev, S., Melnikov, N., & Zhuravskaya, E. (2021) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjaa040 · Cited by 255
Self-citationCollective attention in the age of (mis)information
Mocanu, D., Rossi, L., Zhang, Q. F., Karsai, M., & Quattrociocchi, W. (2015) · Computers in Human Behavior · doi:10.1016/j.chb.2015.01.024 · Cited by 254
Politics 2.0: The Multifaceted Effect of Broadband Internet on Political Participation
Campante, F. R., Durante, R., & Sobbrio, F. (2017) · Journal of the European Economic Association · doi:10.1093/jeea/jvx044 · Cited by 250
The Impact of Media Censorship: 1984 or Brave New World?
Chen, Y., & Yang, D. Y. (2019) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20171765 · Cited by 250
From Hashtag to Hate Crime: Twitter and Antiminority Sentiment
Müller, K., & Schwarz, C. R. (2023) · American Economic Journal Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20210211 · Cited by 244
Anderson, S. P., Strömberg, D., & Waldfogel, J. (2015) · Cited by 244
How Sudden Censorship Can Increase Access to Information
HOBBS, W. R., & ROBERTS, M. E. (2018) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.1017/s0003055418000084 · Cited by 241
Theocharis, Y., Barberá, P., Fazekas, Z., Popa, S. A., & Parnet, O. (2016) · Journal of Communication · doi:10.1111/jcom.12259 · Cited by 237
Facts, alternative facts, and fact checking in times of post-truth politics
Barrera, Ó., Guriev, S. M., Henry, E., & Zhuravskaya, E. V. (2020) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104123 · Cited by 231
Self-citationBail, C. A., Guay, B., Maloney, E., Combs, A., Hillygus, D. S., Merhout, F., Freelon, D., & Volfovsky, A. (2020) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.1906420116 · Cited by 224
Protests as Strategic Games: Experimental Evidence from Hong Kong's Antiauthoritarian Movement*
Cantoni, D., Yang, D. Y., Yuchtman, N., & Zhang, Y. J. (2019) · The Quarterly Journal of Economics · doi:10.1093/qje/qjz002 · Cited by 209
Online social networks and offline protest
STEINERT-THRELKELD, Z., Mocanu, D., Vespignani, A., & Fowler, J. H. (2015) · EPJ Data Science · doi:10.1140/epjds/s13688-015-0056-y · Cited by 208
This is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality
Ascott, T. (2020) · The RUSI Journal · doi:10.1080/03071847.2020.1731155 · Cited by 191
Social Networks and Protest Participation: Evidence from 130 Million Twitter Users
Larson, J., Nagler, J., Ronen, J., & Tucker, J. A. (2016) · American Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1111/ajps.12436 · Cited by 179
Revolution 2.0. The Power of the People Is Greater Than the People in Power: A Memoir
Jehan, A. (2012) · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cited by 173
Сергеевич, Е. Р., Petrova, M., & Сонин, К. И. (2018) · American Economic Journal Applied Economics · doi:10.1257/app.20160089 · Cited by 171
Self-citationWikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency
Sifry, M. L. (2011) · OR Books eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctt20bbwsp · Cited by 168
Political machinery: did robots swing the 2016 US presidential election?
Frey, C. B., Berger, T., & Chen, C. (2018) · Oxford Review of Economic Policy · doi:10.1093/oxrep/gry007 · Cited by 153
The economic effects of Facebook
Mosquera, R., Odunowo, M., McNamara, T., Guo, X., & Petrie, R. (2019) · Experimental Economics · doi:10.1007/s10683-019-09625-y · Cited by 152
Internet and Politics: Evidence from U.K. Local Elections and Local Government Policies
Gavazza, A., Nardotto, M., & Valletti, T. (2018) · The Review of Economic Studies · doi:10.1093/restud/rdy028 · Cited by 134
Jones, J. J., Bond, R. M., Bakshy, E., Eckles, D., & Fowler, J. H. (2017) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0173851 · Cited by 128
Social Media, Sentiment and Public Opinions: Evidence from #Brexit and #USElection
Gorodnichenko, Y., Pham, T., & Talavera, O. (2018) · National Bureau of Economic Research · doi:10.3386/w24631 · Cited by 115
Populism: Demand and SupplyPreprint
Guiso, L., Herrera, H., Morelli, M., et al. (2017) · SSRN Electronic Journal · Cited by 114
The unintended consequences of internet diffusion: Evidence from Malaysia
Miner, L. (2015) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2015.10.002 · Cited by 113
Cagé, J. (2020) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104077 · Cited by 91
Voter mobilisation in the echo chamber: Broadband internet and the rise of populism in Europe
SCHAUB, M., & MORISI, D. (2020) · European Journal of Political Research · doi:10.1111/1475-6765.12373 · Cited by 90
Information from Abroad: Foreign Media, Selective Exposure and Political Support in China
Huang, H., & Yeh, Y. (2017) · British Journal of Political Science · doi:10.1017/s0007123416000739 · Cited by 88
Collective action in networks: Evidence from the Chilean student movement
González, F. (2020) · Journal of Public Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104220 · Cited by 67
Consumers' activism: the cottage cheese boycott
Hendel, I. E., Lach, S., & Yossi Spiegel, C. (2017) · The RAND Journal of Economics · doi:10.1111/1756-2171.12212 · Cited by 64
Facebook Causes ProtestsPreprint
Fergusson, L., & Molina, C. (2019) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3553514 · Cited by 60
Identity, Beliefs, and Political Conflict
Gennaioli, N., & Tabellini, G. (2019) · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3418631 · Cited by 55
Checking and Sharing Alt-Facts
Henry, E., Zhuravskaya, E. V., & Guriev, S. M. (2022) · American Economic Journal Economic Policy · doi:10.1257/pol.20210037 · Cited by 53
Self-citationReputation rules: strategies for building your company's most valuable asset
(2012) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.49-2765 · Cited by 51
Social Image, Networks, and Protest ParticipationPreprint
Сергеевич, Е. Р., Makarin, A., & Petrova, M. (2017) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2940171 · Cited by 45
Self-citationMobile Internet access and political outcomes: Evidence from South Africa
Donati, D. (2023) · Journal of Development Economics · doi:10.1016/j.jdeveco.2023.103073 · Cited by 42
Social Media and Xenophobia: Evidence from Russia
Bursztyn, L., Rao, A., & George, B. Y. (2018) · AEA Randomized Controlled Trials · doi:10.1257/rct.3066-1.0 · Cited by 39
Checking and Sharing Alt-FactsPreprint
Henry, E., Zhuravskaya, E., & Guriev, S. (2020) · Social Science Research Network · doi:10.2139/ssrn.3597191 · Cited by 39
Self-citationInformation and Communication Technologies, Protests, and CensorshipPreprint
Ananyev, M., Xefteris, D., Zudenkova, G., & Petrova, M. (2017) · SSRN Electronic Journal · doi:10.2139/ssrn.2978549 · Cited by 28
Self-citationBroadband internet and protests: Evidence from the Occupy movement
Amorim, G., Lima, R. C., & Sampaio, B. R. (2022) · Information Economics and Policy · doi:10.1016/j.infoecopol.2022.100982 · Cited by 13
Social Media and Political Contributions: The Impact of New Technology on Political Competition
Petrova, M., Sen, A., & Yildirim, P. (2020) · Management Sciences · doi:10.1287/mnsc.2020.3740 · Cited by 8
Self-citation
Research works printed but not linked: 25
- Autor D, 2017, A note on the effect of rising trade exposure on the 2016 presidential elections
- Barberá P., 2015, How social media reduces mass political polarization: evidence from Germany, Spain, and the US
- Bessone P, 2019, Internet access, social media, and the behavior of politicians: evidence from Brazil
- Dal Bó E, 2018, Economic losers and political winners: Sweden's radical right
- Dustmann C, 2017, Europe's Trust Deficit: Causes and Remedies
- Enikolopov R, 2015, Handbook of Media Economics, 1, 687
- Field M, 2018, Telegraph
- Furceri D, 2019, Global incidents of corruption index
- Gladwell M., 2010, The New Yorker, 27
- Independent, 2019, Independent
- Inglehart R., 2018, Foreign Aff, 97, 20
- Krastev I., 2018, Foreign Aff, 97, 49
- Laub Z., 2019, Hate speech on social media: global comparisons
- Martin D, 2018, J. Inform. Warfare, 18
- Mitchell A, 2019, Many Americans say made-up news is a critical problem that needs to be fixed
- Mounk Y, 2018, Foreign Aff, 97, 29
- Qin B, 2019, Social media, information networks, and protests in China
- Rosenberg M, 2018, New York Times
- Rotesi T., 2018, Do social media matter? The impact of Twitter on political participation
- Schaub M, 2019, Eur. J. Political Res.
- Shane S., 2017, New York Times
- Silverman C., 2016, BuzzFeed
- Sunstein CR., 2001, Republic.com.
- Tufekci Z., 2018, MIT Technology Review, 14
- Yanagizawa-Drott D, 2020, Echo chambers: Does online network structure affect political polarization?
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Social Media, News Consumption, and Polarization: Evidence from a Field Experiment
Levy, R. (2021) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20191777 · Cited by 624
The Political Economy of Populism
Guriev, S. M., & Papaioannou, E. (2020) · Journal of Economic Literature · doi:10.1257/jel.20201595 · Cited by 639
Social Media and Mental Health
Braghieri, L., Levy, R., & Makarin, A. (2022) · American Economic Review · doi:10.1257/aer.20211218 · Cited by 673
Why Does China Allow Freer Social Media? Protests versus Surveillance and Propaganda
Qin, B., Strömberg, D., & Wu, Y. (2017) · Journal of Economic Perspectives · doi:10.1257/jep.31.1.117 · Cited by 353
More human than human: measuring ChatGPT political bias
Motoki, F., Pinho Neto, V., & Rodrigues, V. (2024) · Public Choice · doi:10.1007/s11127-023-01097-2 · Cited by 329
Metadata
- Authors
- Zhuravskaya, E., Petrova, M., & Enikolopov, R.
- Affiliations
- Paris School of Economics (FR)
- New Economic School (RU)
- Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, 08002 Barcelona, Spain
- Venue
- Annual Review of Economics
- Publisher
- Annual Reviews
- Published
- 2020-08-02
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 415-438
- ISSN
- 1941-1383 (ISSN-L)
- 1941-1391
- OpenAlex
- W3123948795
- Cited by
- 560
- References
- 88
- Citations by year
- 2026: 76 · 2025: 105 · 2024: 133 · 2023: 113 · 2022: 74 · 2021: 38 · 2020: 14
- FWCI
- 20.89
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- public-domain
- Locations
- Annual Review of Economics (publishedVersion, public-domain)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
- Keywords
- internet, social media, political outcomes, voting, street protests, attitudes toward government, political polarization, xenophobia, fake news, internet censorship, authoritarian regimes, surveillance, propaganda, democracy
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
