Authoritarian downgrading, (self)censorship and new media activism after the Arab Spring

Abstract

While considerable scholarly attention has focused on analysing the role and impact of new media during the Arab Spring uprisings of 2010–2011, comparatively little research has been devoted to examining how online activism has changed in response to the regime stabilisation measures undertaken by the governments which survived the unrest. Characterising the de-liberalisation policies of post–Arab Spring states as ‘authoritarian downgrading’, this article considers how the growing involvement of authoritarian regimes in online spaces is impacting activists’ use of new media technologies. Adopting Bahrain as a case study, we present the results of a survey of Bahraini political activists conducted in 2017 and consider whether activists’ perceptions of their online safety and security are impacting their use of new media through behaviours such as self-censorship, the adoption of pseudonyms and the preferencing of direct messaging apps over Arab Spring-era social media platforms.