Digital social media, political participation and anti-corruption protests

Abstract

The use of digital social media as instrument for recruiting and participating in protest events has been considered by international literature like the main ingredient of the transformation in the conditions and dynamics of political participation in recent years. In Brazil, the “June protests” in 2013 highlighted the intensification of the use of internet and social media in political mobilization and recruitment. This article intends to demonstrate that the use of such tools in the anti-corruption protests in Brazil, from the wave of protest demonstrations starting internationally in 2011, expressed the confrontation with a political system which monopolized and avoided dissatisfactions and demands for transformation. They gradually became one of the main vehicles for the “liberal”, “conservative” and “right-wing” organizations, groups and leaders around a common agenda. This analysis highlights the relevance of the “political dimension” to understand the process of using digital social media in the dynamics of political participation.