ABSTRACT
The appeal of social media has transformed the ways political participation is experienced. As an online communication tool, social media platforms have changed how political content is processed and transmitted. These developments have stimulated political participatory practices even in authoritarian regimes that are less tolerant on how social media affect people’s political consciousness. This study seeks to examine whether social media platforms increase political participation in authoritarian regimes by having Iran as its case study. Iran is an authoritarian regime which imposes heavy censorship in all sorts of media and severe limitations in the freedom of speech. By introducing the Social Media Political Participation Ladder, this article accounts for both a theoretical and an empirical contribution by testing its application. Using primary data from a street survey, with a representative sample (n = 110) conducted in three different cities across Iran, we find a relatively positive impact of social media use in online political information and participation. However, the level of offline political participation remains low, showcasing no significant influence. Thus, the article verifies the different stages developed under the Social Media Political Participation ladder and Iran´s current standing on it.
Keywords: social media, Iran, online political information, online and offline participation, authoritarian regime.
RESUMEN
El recurso a las redes sociales ha transformado la forma en que experimentamos la participación política. Como una herramienta de comunicación en línea, las plataformas en las redes sociales han cambiado cómo se procesa y transmite el contenido político. Estos desarrollos han estimulado las prácticas de participación política, incluso en regímenes autoritarios, a pesar de ser menos tolerantes sobre cómo pueden afectar las redes sociales a la conciencia política de la población. Este estudio trata de examinar si las plataformas de redes sociales incrementan la participación política en regímenes autoritarios, utilizando Irán como estudio de caso. Irán es un régimen autoritario que impone una censura muy dura a todo tipo de medio de comunicación y aplica severas limitaciones a la libertad de expresión. Con la introducción de la escalera de participación política en las redes sociales, este articulo representa una contribución tanto teórica como empírica al testar su aplicación. Utilizando datos primarios extraídos de encuestas a pie de calle, con una muestra representativa (n = 110) recogida en tres grandes ciudades por todo el territorio de Irán, encontramos un impacto relativamente positivo del uso de las redes sociales sobre la información y participación política. Sin embargo, el nivel de participación política offline continúa siendo bajo, lo que demuestra una influencia poco significativa. De esta forma, se han podido verificar las diferentes etapas desarrolladas bajo la escalera de participación política en las redes sociales y la posición actual de Irán en la misma.
Palabras clave: redes sociales, Irán, información política online, participación online y offline, regímen autoritario.
In recent years, social media have become the fastest spreading service in the world,
altering many aspects of daily life from communication, education, business, and even
politics. Social media are digital platforms that allow their users to create profiles,
share content and build a network of contacts (Boyd, Danah. 2008. “Facebook’s privacy trainwreck: Exposure, invasion, and social
convergence”, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 14 (1): 13-20. Available at:
A first indicator of the growing popularity of social media both, in informing citizens
but also for online and offline political participation was illustrated in the 2008
US Presidential elections. Obama’s campaign used social media not only to raise funds
but to ‘’develop a groundswell of empowered volunteers who felt that they could make
a difference” (Aaker, Jennifer and Victoria Chang. 2009. Obama and the Power of Social Media and Technology. Case No. M321. Stanford: Stanford Graduate School of Business. Available at:
Political information refers to the use of social media to access news sources, while offline political participation addresses a more active stance by participating in rallies, protests or civil associations. However, the use of social media and its effects differ between democracies and authoritarian regimes. In authoritarian regimes, social media are not considered merely as a means of communication, but they hold the potential of increasing political engagement both online and offline. There have been incidents that highlight these prospects, such as the 2009 “Twitter uprising” in Iran (Bentivegna, Sara. 2002. “Politics and new media”, in Leah A. Lievrouw and Sonia Livingston, (eds.), Handbook of New Media: Social Shaping and Consequences of ICTs. London: SAGE Publications. Bentivegna, 2002) and the Arab Spring or “Facebook revolution” in Egypt in 2011 (El-Nawawy, Mohammed and Sahar Khamis. 2012. “Political activism 2.0: Comparing the role of social media in Egypt’s ‘Facebook revolution’ and Iran’s ‘Twitter uprising’”, CyberOrient, 6 (1): 8-33.El-Nawawy and Khamis, 2012). Social media have also been studied for their impact on democratization processes in societies where state authorities restrict communication flows.
The present study seeks to provide a more accurate understanding of social media by
examining its potential for generating political participation in authoritarian regimes.
Iran is selected as a representative authoritarian regime but also for its high level
of internet access and its young population that is increasingly familiar with new
communication technologies. According to the Global Digital Report (Global Digital Report. 2020. Digital 2020: Iran. Available at:
This article investigates the extent to which social media played a role in the dynamics of political information and online participation that could assist in advancing the offline participation in authoritarian regimes. The main research question addressed is whether social media opens up new spaces for online political participation and advocates for offline participation in Iran. Under this question, three hypotheses are formulated as follows:
H1. Social media are primarily used in authoritarian regimes to acquire political information.
H2. Social media are widely used in authoritarian regimes for online political participation.
H3. Increased social media engagement leads to more proactive offline political participation.
The study aims to make a theoretical contribution based on Arnstein`s (Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation”, Journal of the American Planning Association, 35 (4): 216-224. Available at:
Social media as a communication tool allows the population to participate more actively
in collective action, obtain information, engage in political discussion, and influence
a network of friends and family online. Therefore, social media can mobilize various
forms of political engagement in society (Xenos, Michael A, Ariadne Vromen and Brian D. Loader. 2014. “The great equalizer?
Patterns of social media use and youth political engagement in three advanced democracies”,
Information, Communication and Society, 17 (2): 151-167. Available at:
In terms of political participation and engagement, the literature provides a broad
framework of academic studies. For Brady (Brady, Henry. 1999. “Political Participation”, in John P. Robinson, Philip R. Shaver
and Lawrence S. Wrightsman, (eds.), Measures of Political Attitudes. San Diego: Academic Press.1999), citizens’ actions and activities must go beyond the political and social interest
of discussion, but they should also be able to influence political outcomes and the
decisions on social issues made by individuals and groups in society. The modes of
political engagement may involve collective actions, information and political participation,
production of texts and videos (Ekström, Mats and Adam Shehata. 2018. “Social media, porous boundaries, and the development
of online political engagement among young citizens”, New Media and Society, 20 (2): 740-759. Available at:
Social media favours political engagement by mobilizing information among the population
(Carlisle, Juliet E. and Robert C. Patton. 2013. “Is Social Media Changing How We Understand
Political Engagement? An Analysis of Facebook and the 2008 Presidential Election”,
Political Research Quarterly, 66 (4): 883-895. Available at:
Besides, the variety of media channels on the market has a differentiated impact on access to information or how political content is mobilized. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are more open channels that have a broad user base and allow people easy access to politicians’, party organizations’ and other political associations’ public accounts and research networks. They are also accessible platforms through any hardware device, i.e. computers, tablets, smartphones. Snapchat brings a more private setting and a more informal means of communication, but it has fewer profiling capabilities and can only be accessed by a mobile device. The difference in the character limitation of these channels also interferes with the communication transmitted between citizens. Facebook is a platform that allows 63,206 characters; Instagram 2,200 characters; and Twitter, only 280 characters (Bossetta, Michael. 2018. “The Digital Architectures of Social Media: Comparing Political Campaigning on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat in the 2016 U.S. Election”, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 95 (2): 1-26. Bossetta, 2018).
Moreover, the technological evolution of online tools is a factor that has allowed
an increase in the political participation of the last years. Discussion spaces integrated
by chats and online research were already present much earlier in the digital world,
but their impacts were much limited in terms of political engagement (Carlisle, Juliet E. and Robert C. Patton. 2013. “Is Social Media Changing How We Understand
Political Engagement? An Analysis of Facebook and the 2008 Presidential Election”,
Political Research Quarterly, 66 (4): 883-895. Available at:
On the other hand, other authors (Zhang, Weiwu, Thomas J. Johnson, Trent Seltzer and Shannon L. Bichard. 2010. “The
Revolution Will be Networked: The Influence of Social Networking Sites on Political
Attitudes and Behavior”, Social Science Computer Review, 28 (1): 75-92.
In this way, social platforms facilitate political involvement by being able to attract
a wide range of users. This is due to their favourable accessibility, their presence
in daily habits, the advantageous cost and less demanding political efforts and commitments.
Social media ensures a low cost of access to political information and mobilization
compared to other instruments (newspapers, magazines, books, posters, flyers) (Carlisle, Juliet E. and Robert C. Patton. 2013. “Is Social Media Changing How We Understand
Political Engagement? An Analysis of Facebook and the 2008 Presidential Election”,
Political Research Quarterly, 66 (4): 883-895. Available at:
Thus, social media ends up being used for political engagement by a profile of the
public more inclined by these ways. Based on the Rainie’s Internet and American Life
Project (Rainie, Lee, Aaron Smith, Henry Brady and Sidney Verba. 2012. Social Media and Political Engagement. Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. Available at:
While McClurg (McClurg, Scott D. 2003. “Social networks and political participation: The role of
social interaction in explaining political participation”, Political Research Quarterly, 56 (4): 449-464. Available at:
The role of social media may also vary according to the culture and political system
of a country. While this should not be asserted, for Boulianne (Boulianne, Shelley. 2015. “Social media use and participation: a meta-analysis of
current research, Information”, Communication and Society, 18 (5): 524-538. Available at:
Active citizen participation in politics is observed in acts such as voting, campaigning,
protesting organizations, and contacting representatives and officials. It is generally
perceived as a voluntary act to influence elections or public actions (Verba, Sidney, Kay L. Schlozman and Henry E. Brady. 1995. Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Verba et al., 1995). However, political participation has been mainly associated with higher levels
of income and education, as well as specific groups, syndicates, and organized activist
groups (Smith, Aaron, Kay L. Schlozman, Sidney Verba and Henry E. Brady. 2009. “The Internet
and Civic Engagement”, Pew Research Center, 01-09-09. Available at:
Arnstein’s work (Arnstein, Sherry R. 1969. “A Ladder of Citizen Participation”, Journal of the American Planning Association, 35 (4): 216-224. Available at:
The traditional approaches on political participation do not fully engage with the
complexities of the participatory process (Carpentier, Nico. 2016. “Beyond the ladder of participation: An analytical toolkit
for the critical analysis of participatory media processes”, Javnost-The Public, 23 (1): 70-88. Available at:
However, the introduction and widespread use of social media are considered to have
even more profoundly shaped political participation both in the online and offline
form (Jost, John T., Pablo Barberá, Richard Bonneau, Melanie Langer, Megan Metzger, Jonathan
Nagler, Joanna Sterling and Joshua Tucker. 2018. “How social media facilitates political
protest: Information, motivation, and social networks”, Political psychology, 39 (11): 85-118. Available at:
Based on these considerations, we develop the Social Media Political Participation Ladder, which identifies three stages or steps of political participation (Figure 1). The first step represents the various sources for acquiring information in social media platforms including news, commentaries and on-spot coverage of events taking place through live videos.
After having climbed this step of the ladder, citizens can proactively engage in online
discussions, create pages, support petitions and political campaigns making their
voices heard. The last step indicates that after the users have been informed and
engaged in online deliberations, they seek a more active offline political participation
as it also observed in other studies (Skoric, Marko M. and Nathaniel Poor. 2013. “Youth engagement in Singapore: The interplay
of social and traditional media”, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 57 (2): 187-204. Available at:
Since the 1979 revolution, Iran’s regime was established as the first Islamic republic
system in the world, governed by religious authorities and the law of Sharia as an
integral part of the country’s legal code. According to Ayatollah Khomeini —the founder
of the Islamic Republic—, Islam defines the provisions for the political life since
“Islam itself is democratic” (Vatanka, Alex. 2015. “The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran Abroad.”, Journal of Democracy 26 (2): 61-70. Available at:
Nevertheless, Iran’s political system has been criticized by political elites and
international organizations in the West mainly on election-related violations, freedom
of speech, inequality of gender and human rights (Tazmini, Ghoncheh. 2009. Khatami’s Iran: the Islamic Republic and the turbulent path
to reform. London and New York: IB Tauris. Available at:
The authoritarianism of the Iranian regime is particularly evident in the realm of
information technology and social media, with the hiring of thousands of “cyber-jihadists”
to monitor and control social media (Milani, Abbas. 2015. “The Authoritarian Resurgence: Iran’s Paradoxical Regime”, Journal of Democracy, 26 (2): 52-60. Available at:
Iranian online social media has played a significant role in shaping social capital
(Eloranta, Jari, Hossein Kermani and Babak Rahimi. 2015. “Facebook Iran: Social Capital
and the Iranian Social Media”, in David M. Faris and Babak Rahimi (eds.), Social media in Iran: politics and society after 2009. Albany: State University of New York Press. Eloranta et al., 2015), in empowering marginalized groups (Gheytanchi, Elham. 2015. “Gender Roles in the Social Media World of Iranian Women”,
in David M. Faris and Babak Rahimi (eds.), Social media in Iran: politics and society after 2009. Albany: State University of New York Press. Gheytanchi, 2015), as an alternative way to censorship of printed media (Michaelsen, Marcus. 2015. “The Politics of Online Journalism in Iran”, in David M.
Faris and Babak Rahimi (eds.), Social media in Iran: politics and society after 2009. Albany: State University of New York Press. Michaelsen, 2015) and as a form of political mobilization (Ekström, Mats and Adam Shehata. 2018. “Social media, porous boundaries, and the development
of online political engagement among young citizens”, New Media and Society, 20 (2): 740-759. Available at:
However, online activity in Iran is also being monitored while foreign-based websites
are banned or filtered, including news sites, search engines, entertainment channels,
email domains (Pakravan, Rudabeh. 2012. “Territory Jam: Tehran”, Places Journal, July. Available at:
This section analyzes the role of social media in the political uprisings in 2009
and 2018. The victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 elections created unprecedented
unrest with public demonstrations in many cities across the country. The candidate
of the opposition Mir-Hossein Musavi and his supporters accused the regime of vote-rigging
and election fraud. Thousands of citizens took on the streets with the slogan “Where’s
my vote?”. These protests over the next months marked the beginning of the “Green
Movement” (Dabashi, Hamid. 2013. “What happened to the Green Movement in Iran?”, Al Jazeera, 12-6-2013. Available at:
The government consequently forbade the demonstrations’ coverage and imposed greater
control over online activities. The regime also used social media to coerce and threaten
activists inside and outside the country (Elson, Sara B., Douglas Yeung, Parisa Roshan, S. R. Bohandy and Alireza Nader. 2012.
“Background on Social Media Use in Iran and Events Surrounding the 2009 Election”,
in Sara Beth Elson, Douglas Yeung, Parisa Roshan, S. R. Bohandy and Alireza Nader
(eds.), Using Social Media to Gauge Iranian Public Opinion and Mood After the 2009 Election.
Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.Elson et al., 2012; Michaelsen, Marcus. 2016. “Exit and voice in a digital age: Iran’s exiled activists
and the authoritarian state”, Globalizations, 15 (2): 248-264. Available at:
Regarding the political use of social media in the Green Movement, similarities can
be seen in the context of the Arab Spring, which represented a series of social demonstrations
against the abuse of power by political authorities in the Middle East and North Africa
since late 2010. Similar to Iran, social media played a key role in channelling information,
showing the government repressions, organizing protests and giving meaning to events
of Arab Spring (Brown, Heather, Emily Guskin and Amy Mitchell. 2012. “The Role of Social Media in
the Arab Uprisings”, Pew Research Center, 28-11-12. Available at:
Nevertheless, President Ahmadinejad has been more successful in managing traditional
and online media than Arab neighbors (Elson, Sara B., Douglas Yeung, Parisa Roshan, S. R. Bohandy and Alireza Nader. 2012.
“Background on Social Media Use in Iran and Events Surrounding the 2009 Election”,
in Sara Beth Elson, Douglas Yeung, Parisa Roshan, S. R. Bohandy and Alireza Nader
(eds.), Using Social Media to Gauge Iranian Public Opinion and Mood After the 2009 Election.
Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.Elson et al., 2012; Faris, David M. 2015. “Architectures of Control and Mobilization in Egypt and Iran”,
in David M. Faris and Babak Rahimi (eds.), Social media in Iran: politics and society after 2009. Albany: State University of New York Press. Faris 2015). In the same manner, Tunisia adopted a similar filtering system; however, the government
was not effective in blocking social media (Dewey, Taylor, Juliane Kaden, Miriam Marks, Shun Matsushima and Beijing Zhu. 2012.
The impact of social media on social unrest in the Arab Spring. International Policy
Program. Stanford: Stanford University. Available at:
Social media also played an important role in the anti-government demonstrations rocking
the country in 2017-2018 when new protests burst out in Mashhad against President
Hassan Rouhani (Eltagouri, Marwa. 2018. “Tens of thousands of people have protested in Iran. Here’s
why”, Washington Post, 03-01-18. Available at:
Nevertheless, these protests were different in nature. In 2009, protesters demanded
changes that stayed however under the framework of existing politics, the overthrow
of Ahmadinejad’s and the establishment of Mousavi as president, more social freedoms
and less oppression by the security forces. Contrarily the 2018 demands were much
more radical, with the opposition insisting on the removal of Khamenei from power
and the end of the regime (Quinn, Michelle. 2018. “One Difference Between 2009 vs 2018 Iran Protests? 48 Million
Smartphones”, VOA, 03-01-18. Available at:
The study aims to test the theory of the participation ladder in social media. To
do so, we employed the case survey research method aiming to combine the benefits
of both a survey and a case study, using cross-sectional data and in-depth analysis
(Larsson, Rikard. 1993. “Case survey methodology: Quantitative analysis of patterns
across case studies”, Academy of management Journal, 36 (6): 1515-1546. Disponible ena.
Conducting interviews in the Middle East has proven quite demanding regarding ethical
and political considerations (Clark, Janine A. 2006. “Field research methods in the Middle East”, Political Science and Politics, 39 (3): 417-423. Available at:
The questionnaire was conducted in the Persian language in three Iranian cities Tehran, Shiraz and Zahedan in April 2019, with the assistance of three residents, who were PhD students in social sciences trained for completing the interviews. The three cities differ significantly from one another in population, economic prosperity and educational level, while the number of internet, mobile and social media users varies between them, thus constituting a representative sample of the Iranian society. Tehran is the capital city with 9,135,000 population, 40.2 % of economic participation rate and 24.9 % of the country’s total Internet users; Shiraz is a medium size city of 1,565,572 people and Zahedan is a rather small city with 609,263 population[6].
The interviews were conducted by approaching people in streets and parks[7] and lasted an average of 10-15 minutes. Interviewees were informed that their participation is entirely voluntary, anonymous, to be used for academic purposes and that they can abandon it at any time even after it has been started. Respondents were selected randomly however not all wished to complete the questionnaire, and some left in the middle of the process. The number of fully completed questionnaires was 110 (n = 110). Figure 2 presents the demographic variables.
From the total number of interviewees, 68 were male, and 42 were female. The second demographic question in the sample was age: 19 ranged between 18-24 years old, 43 between 25-34 years old, 28 between 35-44 years old, 12 between 45-59 years old, and eight were older than 59 years.
The next question concerned the respondents’ education level, who were distributed as follows: no secondary education 10, completed high school 21, bachelor’s degree holders of 46, and master’s or higher degree holders 10. Regarding the type of employment, in the public sector or governmental position 26, work in private sector 26, freelancer or self-employed 23, unemployed 33 while two chose not to respond to this question. The next question concerned the annual income, and the responses resulted in: 65 more than 1000 dollars, 35 less than 1000 dollars, three equal to 1000 and two did not want to disclose this information. Lastly, concerning the residency, 88 of the interviewees live in an urban area and 21 in a rural one, while one gave no response. Lastly, regarding access to the internet, 106 of the sample answered that they have private access to the internet and four do not have. On the specific type of internet access, 47 stated to have only mobile internet access, 10 only on PC or laptop, 44 on both and four none.
According to these results, our sample is characterized by a male, urban, young adult, and a highly educated majority, with access to the internet, satisfactory income, employed both in the private and public sector.
Social media has brought a new dynamic to the way political information is transmitted
and consumed by citizens. Access and exposure to news through social media has been
expanding rapidly. Often, quality content is produced by digital platform experts
that enable citizens to gain political knowledge (Bode, Leticia. 2015. “Political News in the News Feed: Learning Politics from Social
Media”, Mass Communication and Society, 19 (1): 1-25. Available at:
The responses allow us to affirm that there is a considerable number of Iranians who use social media in receiving political information as a primary source; thus, our first hypothesis is verified. From the participants, 46 responded they would use social media, 34 browsers, 26 both resources, three responded none and one did not wish to respond. Considering the frequency of using social media to stay informed of political issues, 30 mentioned every day, 25 often (five to six times a week), 19 sometimes (three to four times a week), 17 rarely (one to two times a week), 14 never and five did not wish to respond. Now, regarding the particular use of Instagram, there is a balance among Iranians who choose this resource to be informed about the political content. From the respondents, 49 use Instagram for this purpose, 41 do not use it, and 20 did not wish to respond. The survey also allows us to assess whether Iranians have confidence in the information provided by social media. From the respondents, 30 generally consider it reliable, 14 a lot reliable, 24 some, 27 few, 14 none and one did not wish to respond. We can also see that it is common among Iranians to follow pages of people or blogs that publish on contemporary political issues. From the respondents, 61 reported following person pages or blogs with political content, 30 did not, and 19 did not wish to respond.
In short, the role of social media in serving the purpose of obtaining political information
is more significant. This rise of social media in obtaining news has led to a decrease
in the dependence of Iranians from traditional media (Gallagher Nancy, Ebrahim Mohseni and Clay Ramsay. 2019. Iranian Public Opinion under “Maximum Pressure”. The Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and Iran Poll.
Available at:
Online political participation means that a person participates in the political process by spreading their opinions and beliefs through the digital path. In this section, as we can see in Figure 4, we will look at how Iranians have participated in political activities through social media and whether there is any significant repercussion of political participation. Most Iranians have a real profile on social media. From the respondents, 72 use real profiles, 28 fake, eight both and two did not wish to respond. Besides, most Iranians use social media to communicate. Among the respondents, 32 mentioned communication, 23 political content, 31 photo sharing, 17 general news, 6 responded other people, and one did not wish to respond.
According to the responses, we can confirm that Instagram is the most widely used
digital platform among Iranians. in fact, 58 of them use Instagram, seven Facebook,
three Twitter, 38 Telegram and four did not wish to respond. These results indicate
that Iranians also use other social media that have been banned in the country with
the most popular social media being Instagram and Telegram also verified in other
surveys (Gallagher Nancy, Ebrahim Mohseni and Clay Ramsay. 2019. Iranian Public Opinion under “Maximum Pressure”. The Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM) and Iran Poll.
Available at:
The results show that Iranians somehow moderately react online to political opinions within a network of friends and family. 65 respondents mentioned that they have already blocked or unfriend, 35 have not, and only 10 did not wish to respond. There is also a moderate number of Iranians who follow or become a fan of any political candidate on social media. Among the respondents, 52 have followed, 41 have not followed, and 17 did not wish to respond. Regarding the use of hashtags in profile pictures as an indication of supporting political causes, Iranians have not promoted this practice extensively. 49 respondents have used it, 38 have not used it, and 23 did not wish to respond.
Thus, the role of social media in leveraging online political participation in Iranian
society appears not to be significant; although there is a moderate influence in terms
of maintaining communication, following pages of political candidates and reacting
to the circle of friendship regarding the diversity of political opinions. Regarding
the second stage of the SMPPL, which refers to the engagement of the users online,
the Iranian society reaches a moderate way, thus, not verifying the second hypothesis.
Similar conclusions were drawn from studies focusing on Facebook users in Iran, revealing
that Iranians are rather “passive” users, mostly following or liking content than
commenting on political posts. Additionally, the majority of the people interviewed
responded that they share mostly personal rather political content or news (Iran Media Program. 2014. Liking Facebook in Tehran: Social Networking in Iran. Available at:
Offline political participation is one of the traditional forms of involvement that allows individuals to express their position and political opinion through participation in protests, political rallies, public audience, work, or volunteering in any political party. In this section, as we can (Figure 5), we will look at Iranian political participation through offline resources. Thus, we can compare whether there is a greater willingness of Iranians to participate in politics online or offline and whether social media has provided a significant role in this motivation. The questionnaire confirms that most Iranians have little propensity to attend political protests. From the respondents, 79 would not attend in an organized protest, 18 would attend, and 13 did not wish to respond.
Few Iranians have been engaged in traditional groups of political or social content. From the respondents, only 14 have belonged to a group, 90 have not belonged, and six did not wish to respond. Similarly, there is little encouragement among Iranians. Of the respondents, 22 have ever encouraged other people to vote or to participate in a political protest/boycott, 56 have not encouraged, and 32 did not wish to respond. It is not very common among Iranians to contact a national or local government official about an issue. From the respondents, 26 have contacted, 56 have not, and 25 did not wish to respond. As expected, Iranians have not complained in writing or person about political or social issues. From respondents, nine have complained quite often, five often, 14 rarely, 12 not quite often, 19 seldom, 39 never, 12 did not wish to respond.
Overall, the role of social media in fostering offline political participation has
no significant weight. Iranian society hardly uses social media to promote protests,
political rallies, or participation in public deliberations; offline political participation
seems to have almost no significant weight in Iranian society. Regarding the third
level of the SMPPL which refers to an active form of offline political participation
that represents the empowerment of citizens in societal and political issues we notice
that Iranians do not actively participate in shaping the government agenda or promoting
and engaging in initiatives of offline political participation even to safeguard their
rights. The third hypothesis of this study is not verified. This outcome has been
presented in other studies that question the ability of social media in “fuelling
activist protest and sustain revolution” (Wojcieszak, Magdalena and Briar Smith. 2013.“Will Politics Be Tweeted? New Media Use
by Iranian Youth in 2011”, New Media and Society, 16 (1): 91-109. Available at:
This article constitutes a contribution to the area of Political Science by analyzing the impact of social media on promoting political participation in Iran as a representative case study of authoritarian regimes. As discussed, the use of social media is vigorously restricted in Iranian society because of its authoritarian political system. As a result of the political censorship in Iran, many of the digital platforms have already been banned from use. By employing a survey conducted in Iran, this study has sought to provide an understanding of the links between social media and political participation.
Accordingly, with the introduction of the Social Media Political Participation Ladder (SMPPL), we list three possible analytical dimensions where social media can gain an influential role: online political information, online and offline political participation. Based on this theoretical underpinning, political participation is perceived as a process whereby the respective society takes a gradual “step-up or stage-up” approach. According to the SMPPL, only after having achieved a higher level of political information, a developed interest in being more involved in online political discussions and initiatives emerges thus, advancing to a more proactive online political behaviour. Consequently, after the second stage of online political participation, further stimulation will encourage an increased propensity to discuss and engage offline, reaching the top of the ladder.
The findings of this study demonstrate that the impact of social media in Iran does
work largely in this stepwise format. Furthermore, the responses provided are to a
degree consistent with those of Wojcieszak and Smith (Wojcieszak, Magdalena and Briar Smith. 2013.“Will Politics Be Tweeted? New Media Use
by Iranian Youth in 2011”, New Media and Society, 16 (1): 91-109. Available at:
Our second hypothesis that considers that social media are used widely for online political participation was not verified with the sample of the survey revealing a rather moderate online political participation in Iran. Thus, considerations that praise the role of social media as a critical element in active political engagement in authoritarian regimes need to be re-evaluated. Finally, there is no validation of the third hypothesis that accounts for significant effects of using social media in offline political participation. A great majority of respondents had not engaged in any format of offline political participation. This may suggest that the fear of the regime is still quite prominent in the country.
In conclusion, the findings of this study match the conclusions of the existing literature on the use and impact of social media in authoritarian regimes. More notably, this article confirms that social media has not impacted drastically active political participation in Iran. In brief, Iranian society is on an ascending process but currently standing on the first stage of political information.
[1] |
Government of the mullahs (clerics). |
[2] |
Al Jazeera. 2017. “Iran blocks Instagram, Telegram after protests”. Available at: https://bit.ly/2VXq82t [Last accessed: May 8th 2019]. |
[3] |
StatCounter. 2019. Social Media Stats in Islamic Republic of Iran. Available at: https://gs.statcounter.com/social-media-stats/all/iran [Last accessed: May 10th 2019]. |
[4] |
It means “we regret” (our vote). |
[5] |
Also known as standardized survey interviewing. |
[6] |
Statistical Center of Iran. 2020. Census 2016. Available at:https://www.amar.org.ir/english [Last accessed: May 5th 2020]. |
[7] |
Shiraz: Zand street and Eram garden street (شیراز: خیابان زند و خیابان ارم), Tehran:
Enghelab street and Tajrish street (تهران : خیالان انقلاب و خیابان تجریش) and Zahedan:
Janbazan street and Keshavarz street (زاهدان : خیابان جانبازان و خیابان کشاورز). |
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[a] |
PhD Candidate of International Relations at the University of Minho (Portugal), and
Integrated Member of the Research Centre in Political Science. She holds a Master
of Arts in International Relations from the Graduate Program in International Relations
San Tiago Dantas (UNESP, UNICAMP, PUC-SP) (Brazil), and a bachelor’s degree in International
Relations from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (orcid.org/0000-0001-8145-7333). |
[b] |
PhD Candidate of International relations at the University of Minho (Portugal), and
Integrated Member of the Research Centre in Political Science. She holds a Master
of Arts in International Political Economy from Panteio University, Greece and a bachelor’s
degree in International and European studies from Piraeus University. She has also
been visiting researcher at ICD in Berlin (Germany) and the University of Maribor
(Slovenia) (orcid.org/0000-0001-7672-3342). |