Political action on the internet in the era of social networks

Abstract

The popularization and use of social networks in political mobilizations, such as the June 2013 Days, the protests for the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff and, more recently, the election campaigns that elected Jair Bolsonaro, have attracted the attention of society and researchers to the use of social networks in contemporary political practices. In order to study this political use of social internet networks, the article identified six types of political action: (a) production, circulation and transmission of political information, (b) as an interactive electronic government device, (c) formation of an interconnected public sphere, (d) (cyber) political group activism, (e) political communication, and (f) technopolitics. This identification of the different types of political action on social internet networks, by mapping relevant works in each of them and describing their characteristics, seeks to assist in the development of a research agenda in the area of studies in Internet and politics, in addition to contribute to the understanding of the political disputes of contemporary democratic practice.