Bahrain announced they would be taking “severe measures” to track down dissidents who use social media
Social Media and Democracy articles on Democracy Chronicles
This Social Media and Democracy section highlights the ongoing saga of how this new type of communications technology impacts the progress of free and fair elections across the globe. Whether social media brings benefit or harm to democracy is an area of heavy debate. Be sure to also check out our Election Technology section and our articles on Technology Dissidents, the Internet and Voting or Journalism and Free Speech.
Revealed: Russia used Tumblr for 2016 election disinformation
Tumblr announced Friday the blogging platform was used by a shadowy Russian internet group to spread disinformation
Facebook in American elections, from Obama to Trump
The use of Facebook data to target voters has triggered global outrage with the Cambridge Analytica scandal
How Canada is preventing social media from interfering in elections
Canada’s major political parties are making use of online advertising as much as anyone else
Is Facebook killing democracy with its personality profiling data?
The company is worth billions of dollars because it harvests your data and sells it to advertisers
Iranian Filmmaker’s Instagram Post on Syria Sparks Controversy
The Instagram post by an outspoken, internationally acclaimed filmmaker and activist triggered a new debate
A Student Built Program Designed to Sniff Out Twitter Bots
Students tracking about 1,500 political propaganda accounts that appear to have been generated by computers
The Word ‘Disagree’ Has Been Banned on Chinese Social Media
Change comes in the wake of proposal to amend the constitution and scrap a two-term limit on the president
Ally of Kremlin critic Navalny arrested over tweet
Roman Rubanov sentenced to ten days in jail after posting a tweet calling on followers to come to an unauthorised rally
High-profile Bahrain activist sentenced to 5 years for tweets
Bahraini activist Nabeel Rajab was sentenced to a further five years in jail over tweets critical of the war in Yemen