New Social Media: Modernisation and Democratisation in Russia

Abstract

The EU–Russia Partnership for Modernisation (P4M) seemingly indicated a shift in the relationship from a basis in a democratising discourse to a modernising one. This article argues that despite Russia's view of modernisation as being about economic growth and innovation, for the EU democratisation remained an important priority. Which vision, however, has been vindicated? To answer this question, the focus is on the use of computer-mediated communication, occasioned by the questions asked since mass public demonstrations began in Russia in late 2011 about whether those protests were evidence of Russia undergoing its own ‘spring’ in the way seen in many parts of the Arab world in 2010. These comparisons were drawn primarily because of the perceived role of new technologies in helping ordinary Russians to mobilise and publicise protest. Looking at modernisation through the prism of social media is revealing of the extent to which Russians use modern technology and of the extent to which Russia is democratising. The article concludes that there is evidence of modernising and democratising effects but that an increasingly repressive government approach looks like creating effective obstacles to the EU and Russian visions of modernisation alike

Unsocial media in the EU and Russia

“…In the context of arguments that social media were democratising tools, earlier accounts were concerned with the demographics of internet access and social media usage: typically, questions revolved around whether usage differed along gender, age, education and other lines and what this meant for representation. In the context of EU-Russia relations, this was especially true in the Russian, rather than EU, case (David 2015). At the current time, given internet penetration rates are far higher, 3 aided by developments in mobile technology, especially 4G, analysis takes internet access -and therefore social media access -across all the people in EU-Russia relations far more for granted.…”

“…Its critics rightly argue it threatens online freedom, while the Kremlin argues it is justified given the CIA origins of the internet and the freedoms it offers (Soldatov and Borogan 2015). These are merely the latest official developments in a longer pattern of increasing surveillance: from the System for Operative Investigative Activities (SORM), allowing the interception of information; to the 2012 creation of the Federal Supervision Agency for Information Technologies and Communications (Roskomnadzor), authorised to blacklist and block sites; to laws such as the so-called Yarovaya's Law, ostensibly a tool in the fight against terrorism but used to require certain surveillance actions of telecoms providers, including decryption, as well as retention of data in Russia (see David 2015David , 2018; or the 2017 legislation forbidding access to proxies, such as VPNs, that allow citizens anonymous access to banned information or sites.…”

Exploring the many faces of social media

“…Nevertheless, users are seen to be empowered to independently promote their own perspective, challenging dominant and/ or government-backed narratives (Loader and Mercea, 2011;Price, 2013) and thereby create both national and international protest networks and pressure groups that would otherwise be excluded from having a voice (Al-Momani, 2011;Khondker, 2011;Bonilla and Rosa, 2015). That is done by enabling people to connect, both emotionally and informationally, across different locationsin other words, by "making the remote local" (David, 2015). Some would even go as far as to imply an ethic of "perpetual participation" (De Luca, Lawson, and Sun, 2012) and that increased access to the Internet "facilitates democratic change by cultivating pro-democratic attitudes" seemingly on its own (Stoycheff and Nisbet, 2014: 642).…”

Social media use, mental health, and suicide-related outcomes in Russian women: A cross-sectional comparison between two age groups

“… 10 – 12 A systematic literature search in PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases conducted using a combination of search keywords such as “Social Media Use,” “addictive Social Media Use,” “problematic Social Media Use,” “mental health,” “suicide,” “emerging adulthood,” and “Russian women” in the English and Russian language in June 2022 revealed that investigations of potential consequences of SMU for mental health in Russian samples are rare. Most research that investigated SMU in Russia focused on political issues 46 – 48 or on the benefits of SMU for marketing and business development. 49 , 50 Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate problematic SMU, daily stress, mental health, and suicide-related outcomes as well as their relationships in female emerging adulthood in Russia to close the described research gap.…”