Under surveillance: examining Facebook’s spiral of silence effects in the wake of NSA internet monitoring
Abstract
Since Edward Snowden exposed the National Security Agency’s use of controversial online surveillance programs in 2013, there has been widespread speculation about the potentially deleterious effects of online government monitoring. This study explores how perceptions and justification of surveillance practices may create a chilling effect on democratic discourse by stifling the expression of minority political views. Using a spiral of silence theoretical framework, knowing one is subject to surveillance and accepting such surveillance as necessary act as moderating agents in the relationship between one’s perceived climate of opinion and willingness to voice opinions online. Theoretical and normative implications are discussed.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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?
Surveillance technologies-especially facial recognition, data tracking, and large-scale monitoring-significantly erode individual freedom and privacy.
“Surveillance technologies—especially facial recognition, data tracking, and large-scale monitoring—significantly erode individual freedom and privacy (Stoycheff, 2016).”
From Toward a humanized technology: a reinterpretation of Erich Fromm’ s humanistic peace psychology (2026) · cites this paper as Stoycheff, 2016
Cites
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE: A CONCEPTUAL REVIEW AND EMPIRICAL OUTLOOK
Scheufle, D. A., & Moy, P. (2000) · International Journal of Public Opinion Research · doi:10.1093/ijpor/12.1.3 · Cited by 331 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Matthes, J., Knoll, J., & von Sikorski, C. (2018) · Communication Research · doi:10.1177/0093650217745429 · Cited by 269 · see citing works
Dennen, V. P., Choi, H., & Word, K. (2020) · Educational Technology Research and Development · doi:10.1007/s11423-020-09796-z · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Gorzeman, L., & Korenhof, P. (2017) · Philosophy & Technology · doi:10.1007/s13347-016-0238-y · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Toward a humanized technology: a reinterpretation of Erich Fromm’ s humanistic peace psychology
Wang, Y., Li, P., & Liu, W. (2026) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1646601 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Stoycheff, E.
- Affiliations
- Wayne State University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Stoycheff, Elizabeth
- ORCID
- Stoycheff, Elizabeth
- Venue
- Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2016-03-08
- Volume
- 93
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 296-311
- ISSN
- 1077-6990 (ISSN-L)
- 2161-430X
- OpenAlex
- W2326657680
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 23 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 9
- FWCI
- 56.13
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Law, Rights, and Freedoms
- Social Sciences › Communication › Social Media and Politics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Media Influence and Politics
- Keywords
- online surveillance, government monitoring, Edward Snowden, National Security Agency, spiral of silence, chilling effect, democratic discourse, online opinion expression, freedom of expression
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
