The Consequences of the Internet for Politics

“In part, this reflects fundamental methodological problems in distinguishing between homophily and social influence using standard data (Shalizi & Thomas 2011), and in part, genuine ambiguity in research results.”

“…and social media continues to increase while their novelty diminishes, earlier debates over the general implications of ICTs for democracy have evolved into, as Farrell (2012) suggests, “a set of more specific inquiries into particular ways in which the Internet might shape politics” (p. 37).”

“Consequently, this affordance could generate interest in political matters and provide the necessary self-confidence for citizens to engage, either modestly by commenting or expressing opinions, or in a more articulated manner, such as through digital activism (Farrell, 2012).”

“Thus, I was able to probe further what principals like or dislike about the religion policy (Farrell, 2012).”

“In recent years, collective action has shifted from movement organizations with hierarchical structures, intermediary roles, and clichéd visions to that which encourages greater individual agency and distributed action (Benkler et al., 2015; Farrell, 2012; Lee, 2015).”

“En el polo opuesto, Farrell (2012) mantiene que las redes sociales actúan como un lugar de encuentro democrático para un amplio espectro de la población.”

“A growing body of scholarly work indicates that the introduction of the Internet as a relevant communication tool is contributing to mass political polarization (Farrell, 2012).”

“I was able to further probe the principals’ acceptance and/or rejection of the religion-in-education policy (Farrell, 2012).”

“The use of computers to predict voters behavior is not new (Farrell, 2012; Jon B., 1998; Macintosh, Malina, & Farrell, 2002).”

“This latter behavior—altering or concealing one’s true opinion in favor of a misrepresented stance—can arise from societal pressures to conform, a concept extensively explored within sociological research [27], [40], [41], [42].”

“The Arab Spring in the early 2010s is often cited as an example of how the internet can help facilitate information sharing across civil society and hasten transitions to democracy (Howard et al., 2011; Roberts et al., 2011; Stepanova, 2011; Farrell, 2012).”

“Citizens on social media generally tend to network more with like-minded citizens, and thus activists gradually see a reinforcement of their views about the legitimacy of their political position (Farrell, 2012).”

“The Arab Spring in the early 2010s is often cited as an example of how the internet can help facilitate information sharing across civil society and hasten transitions to democracy (Farrell, 2012; Howard et al. 2011; Roberts et al. 2011; Stepanova, 2011).”

“As Menéndez (2014) pointed out, violence against women is increasingly present in the information agenda and in social debates (Casero-Ripollés, 2010; Farrell, 2012; Zugasti and García, 2018). The consensus shown by all parties against gender violence may also reflect the relevance of this issue in society, as evidenc…”

“It is important to note that we are able to observe changes all over the world and not only in Africa, Turkey or other places referenced above, but at any place in the world which has access to the Internet and mobile phones (Aker & Mbiti, 2010; Farrell, 2012).”

“El activismo generado en el contexto digital ha desafiado el poder e impulsado iniciativas para transformar las instituciones políticas, tanto en regímenes democráticos como autocráticos (Castells, 2012; Farrell, 2012).”

“Hence, while the Internet certainly makes it easier for the activists involved to pursue their goals (Farrell, 2012; Aday et al., 2010; Conover et al., 2011), through lowering of the cost of certain kind of collective actions, it allows as well for easier manipulation of the masses, and the materials produced in the w…”

“In this virtual space, they can orchestrate collective action and become politically active (Farrell 2012).”

“This is consistent with the opinion of many experts that the internet has influenced many aspects of human life [6], [7], such as communication [8]–[11], culture [12], social [13]–[15], and politics [16], [17].”

“Fallstudien über die zentrale Rolle, die Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKT) für soziale Bewegungen und politische Kampagnen etwa in Myanmar oder auf den 1 Siehe als Überblick etwa Farrell (2012) oder Dutton (2013) .”

“The Internet lowers many of the barriers to connecting with like-minded individuals (Farrell, 2012; Valentino et al., 2009).”

“There is a broad consensus among political scientists that elections are a fundamental institution of democracy and a crucial area of study within political science (Farrell, 2012; Powell, 2000).”

“Homophily on the internet and social media by users (Farrell, 2012) can create a space that echoes the similarity of political choices (Arvidsson, 2014) so that it can gather mass groups of supporters virtually.”

“While these participatory spaces have been derided for giving rise to slacktivism (a low risk, low-cost activity on social media that attempts to raise awareness or produce change) and creating a disconnect between real life and the virtual world (Christensen, 2011; Jurgenson, 2012), these social journalists and activ…”

“There is a variety of ways in which the Internet makes it more likely that individuals with shared views or preferences cluster together [10].”

“…that the perceived credibility and trustworthiness of the blogger have an impact on readers’ receptiveness to information.h a Statista, 2017. b Farrell, 2012; Wortham, 2007. c Cavanagh, 2009; Chong, 2010. d Farrell, 2012. e Weinberger, 2011. f Williamson and Eisen, 2017. g Aldred et al.,…”

“When people perceive lower levels of repression, the likelihood of sincere expressions of political beliefs and emotions increases, which makes preference falsification (Kuran, 1997) less likely (Farrell, 2012).”

“This is a surprising possibility given the traditional expectation that the Internet has the ability to promote collective action by reducing transaction costs overall (Farrell 2012).”

“Copyright 2026 by the author(s). mocratizing forces that could amplify previously unheard voices (Farrell, 2012; Tudoroiu, 2014; Jost et al., 2018), have instead contributed to these problems: amplifying polarization, accelerating the spread of misinformation, and systematically rewarding…”

“Henry Farrell also analyzes the relationship between the internet, including social media, and political behavior (H. Farrell, 2012).”

“Social media has become the primary channel to learn about and spread news, engage in political discussions, and participate in collective actions over the past decade [1, 2, 3].”

“It is for this reasoning that I expect countries with a relatively high dependency of the media on the state – which is interfering and dictating the rules of communication and expression – to discourage citizens from freely expressing themselves politically online (Farrell 2012).”

“Pada akhirnya, kritikus menegaskan bahwa hanya dengan memperhatikan jenis gerakan sosial tertentu, optimisme teknologi dapat mengalihkan perhatian ke sejauh mana konteks nasional dapat berlanjut mempengaruhi partisipasi masyarakat (Farrell, 2012; Zhang & Brym, 2019).”

“A Primavera Árabe, como ficou conhecida essa série de protestos, foi chamada ainda de revolução das mídias sociais, revolução do Facebook, revolução do Twitter, ou ainda revolução wiki (FARRELL, 2012; HOWARD, 2011; 2013; COTTLE, 2011).”

“Farrell (2012) urges political scientists and social scientists to use computational tools on the large databases of information the Internet has generated as political discourse has moved to the Internet.”

“, Internet effects on political knowledge, polarization or political participation (Farrell, 2012).”

“Clearly much work on understanding the impact of the Internet on politics remains to be done [16].”