Online government disinformation, censorship, and civil conflict in authoritarian regimes

Previous scholarship has examined how digital communication technologies affect political violence cross-nationally. However, to date, minimal research has analyzed how online government disinformation and online government censorship affect civil conflict in authoritarian regimes. Thus, through a cross-national analysis of 99 authoritarian states from 2000–2020, this study examines how the dissemination of government disinformation on social media and online government censorship affects civil conflict in authoritarian regimes. In controlling for potential endogeneity, the findings reveal that greater government disinformation on social media and higher levels of online government censorship increase civil conflict in authoritarian regimes by enhancing polarization, mass mobilization, and discontent. These findings have important implications in considering the effects online government disinformation and online government censorship have on political violence in authoritarian states.