Peter Chiira

 Consideration of the impact of social media on politics in Russia during the reign of Vladimir Putin from 2012 till now Name Institution Social media refers to the websites and tools that people use in an interactive manner (Heinz, 2012). These sites allow the users to create public profiles and identify others with whom they communicate on a regular basis. Social media also uses certain social mediums through which the users create networks to communicate with other users where they share content and talk about similar interests. The continuous use of social media in the world has affected various aspects of life communication and politics. The use of social media has changed how politicians and leaders communicate and interact with the citizens. Citizens in some countries in the world have also used social media to create revolutions. This paper discusses a consideration of the impact of social media on politics in Russia during the reign of Vladimir Putin from 2012 to the present. Background Media freedoms in Russia have been suppressed in the last few years, which has created a context where the participation of the public and public discourse has been slowly reducing. The modern Russia exercises massive control. For several years, the internet and social media in Russia has been playing a critical role in assisting the citizens to participate and engage other in Russia and have played a significant role in promoting engagement, mobilization and impacting the discourse within the Russian public environment. Runet, which stands for Russia web has been unregulated for several years, which led to the rise of online activism and the emergence of protests movements in the country in 2011 and 2012. The growth of political engagement in Russia through social media has been realized because of the several platforms that exist in the country, which includes both local and international media platforms. The Russian opposition has been actively introducing new platforms since the begging of the- rallies. Most of the protests in Russia during this period occurred on Facebook (Kumar & Svensson, 2015). Another platform that played a significant role was Vkontakte, which is the Russian equivalent of Facebook. Other sites in the country are Odnoklassniki.Ru, Russian Language Twitter, and LiveJournal, which is a blogging platform in the Russian language. Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki are the largest and second largest sites in the country (Landers & Schmidt, 2016). Lens/ approach This paper uses the perspective of a Russian citizen residing in the country and supported by information collected from books, articles, and magazines on political issues. The paper aims at presenting information on the extent to which social networks have influenced politics and how state structures control the flow of information on social media. More specifically, the paper reviews information on the impact of social media on governments in the nation during the period that Putin has been the president. Research methodology The paper collects information from secondary sources published within the country. However, the article also incorporates some external resources to acquire an international and foreign perspective. Literature review The growth in the world has increased the flow of information, as the people do not have to wait for newspapers to access information. The media has threatened the existence of traditional forms of passing political and other types of information as it has changed the way people consume information. The rapid growth of social media has changed the habits and styles of communication and is changing the manner in which citizens participate in politics (Sonntagbauer, 2014). In several countries, the platform has promoted citizen participation in a significant way and has impacted the improvement of democratic values. The rise of social media has also led to the rise of citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is the practice of unskilled individuals who play an aggressive role in gathering, informing, investigating and broadcasting news and information (Adria et al. 2016). In the past, citizen journalism was used to give information to the media houses by now citizens post the news online for the country to lead. Citizen journalism has affected the passing of political information. People share information about the running of the government and share opinions about the current administration. Russia under the rule of Putin enacted the Internet Law in 2012 that began the era in the regulation of RuNet. The law gave the government absolute powers to shut down any website harmful to minors. Though the law was initially intended to protect minor, it gave power to the administration to impose other forms of censorship (Tkacheva, 2013). At one in point in 2012, Youtube was temporarily blocked. The administration then started using the blacklist to suppress criticisms from the opposition. In 2014, the telecom regular in Russia, Roskomnadzor, blocked some websites that included the blogs of the prominent critics like Garry Kasparov and Alexei Navalny (Merviö, 2015). The websites were blacklisted because the government considered them extremist as they encouraged the citizens to attend unauthorized rallies. The Putin regime also blocked several Ukrainian groups on the social network platform Vkontakte. One important thing to note about social media in Putin’s era is that his administration does not engage in large-scale technology internet censorship efforts and does not use soft means to deal with offensive online content. The regime also does not use extended real-time content filtering techniques to control the internet. However, the Putin regime has been successful in establishing its influence on the internet (Merviö, 2015). As most of the critics of Putin’s regime use the Internet to criticize the government, his administration uses the social networks to counter-mobilize base support. Putting uses the social media to seek support for his government and promote regime legitimacy. Assertion and analysis From the review of literature above, it is explicit that social media has an impact on politics in Russia during Putin’s era. The media has influenced politics in that the critics has used the platform to critique the government, the Putin administration has exercised some censorship on the internet, and Putin has used social media to seek support for his regime. Importance and potential impact This information in this paper in important for the people interested in politics as it provides them with information on how social media has affected politics during Putin’s governance. The research is also relevant to the internet users in Russia to understand how to express their political position, influence the course of politics and how to interact with other residents on political issues. Conclusion The social media has been used extensively in several countries to influence political issues and hold governments to accountability. It gives citizens the platform to interact on political matters. Social media has had a significant impact on politics in Russia during Putin’s regime. Its impact has been that people have used social media to criticize the government while Putin has used the media to counter the critics. Seek legitimacy of his administration and seek support from the citizens. References Adria, Marco, Mao, & Yuping. (2016). Handbook of Research on Citizen Engagement and Public Participation in the Era of New Media. IGI Global. Heinz, D. (2012). Opportunities and Risks of Social Media Tools for the Economy. Munchen: GRIN Verlag. Kumar, V., & Svensson, J. (2015). Promoting Social Change and Democracy Through Information Technology. Hershey: IGI Global. Landers, R. N., & Schmidt, G. B. (2016). Social Media in Employee Selection and Recruitment: Theory, Practice, and Current Challenges. Berlin : Springer. Merviö, M. M. (2015). Management and Participation in the Public Sphere. IGI Global. Sonntagbauer, P. (2014). Handbook of Research on Advanced ICT Integration for Governance and Policy Modeling. Hershey: IGI Global. Tkacheva, O. (2013). Internet Freedom and Political Space. Rand Corporation.