Regime characteristics and online government disinformation

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

ABSTRACT Previous research assumes that authoritarian regimes are more prone to employ online disinformation internationally compared with democratic states. However, minimal research has empirically examined the relationship between regime characteristics and governments’ use of social media to spread disinformation from a cross-national perspective. Thus, this study examines the effect regime characteristics have on the government dissemination of disinformation on social media to influence citizens in other states. In analyzing 158 states from 2000–2020, we find that levels of democracy and authoritarianism significantly affect the spread of government disinformation on social media. We discover that more democratic states are least likely to disseminate disinformation abroad on social media and more authoritarian regimes are most likely to disseminate disinformation abroad on social media. Additionally, we find that authoritarian regimes that are presidential, personalistic, clientelist, and corrupt are the most likely authoritarian states to disseminate disinformation abroad on social media. The rationale for these findings is that authoritarian regimes that are less constrained by domestic political actors and institutions entail environments that allow for more aggressive use of online disinformation tactics to pursue their foreign policy objectives. These findings have important implications in considering how regime characteristics affect government-sponsored online disinformation.