Contagion, Contention, and Content: Political Mobilization on Telegram in the 2020 Belarusian post-Election Protests

Abstract: This study aims to scrutinize the role of the social media application Telegram as a protest mobilizing structure during the 2020 post-election uprising in Minsk, Belarus. The purpose is to strengthen the understanding on how protest mobilizations online relate to offline protest participation in authoritarian states, and how the usage of social media in social movements impact, and is influenced by, its authoritarian context. The study utilizes an abductive, qualitative research approach, relying on semi-structured, in-depth, virtual interview data. The study found that Telegram was a decentralized and central mobilizing structure, supplying popular protest opportunities. The amount, speed of information, and tight fit with audiences’ protest demands made it efficient. Online Telegram mobilization and offline protest action was seen as complementing and interlinked. The mobilizing aspect of public Telegram channels was the usability of the information available, governed by a process of socialization in private chats and groups, showing the coexistence of weak and strong social ties online. The study findings point towards an interaction of online and offline repression in Belarus. While dissidents are not passive targets of digital authoritarianism, repression was capable of both impeding and driving protest mobilization online and offline. The complementarity of mobilization on Telegram was its constructive features and ability to provide an alternative space for action for highly repressed offline mobilization.