Can Online Dissent be (Effectively) Censored?" with Arvind Magesan (University of Calgary) and Arieda Muço (CEU)

Abstract:

We study a legal reform in Turkey which imposed new regulations on social media platforms with the aim of reducing the spread of offensive content. Critics' argued that the policy was intended to silence anti-government dissent. To study the effects of the policy, we construct a panel of social media activity for almost 1,000 Turkish Twitter users, including a large set of users who were critical of the new policy when announced. Using a set of interrupted-time-series and difference-in-differences empirical exercises, we find that dissenters became less active once the new regulation came into effect, and that engagement with anti-government tweets decreased. The preliminary results provide evidence of the reform being effective at decreasing anti-government expression on social media.