How Democratic Backsliding Shapes Citizens’ Political Behavior on Social Media

Dr. Alon Zoizner, University of Haifa
Avi Levy, University of Haifa

While research on democratic backsliding often treats social media discourse as an antecedent of democratic decline, far less is known about how citizens’ online behavior changes once backsliding is underway. Focusing on Israel in 2023, we leverage a sudden institutional shock—the right-wing government’s announcement of a sweeping judicial overhaul—to examine how it shaped citizens’ behavior on social media. We utilize two-wave panel data from Twitter, tracking the same users before and after the announcement, and combine it with computational content analysis of political ideology and toxicity. We find that while users’ networks became more politically diverse after the onset of the judicial overhaul, their overall frequency of political posting declined. Moreover, when political discussion occurred, it became more toxic, marked by increased offensive and intolerant expressions. These findings show how democratic backsliding produces complex and normatively troubling shifts in online communication that may be exploited by illiberal actors.

For Registration: https://www.eventer.co.il/research13042026