This paper is an investigation into the impact of the Internet on protest participation in modern democracies and autocracies — encompassing 50 nations. The study questions whether the use of the Internet as ones’ primary news resource increases the probability of protest participation. The paper relies on data from the World Values Survey 2010-2013 to demonstrate that on an individual level the Internet has shown a significant effect on protest participation. Models also indicate that the likelihood of protests has no relation with political regime, economic development, or digital access. The analysis demonstrates that the only significant factor for predicting social unrest is a country’s unemployment rate. This paper illustrates the high interactive effect of individual Internet use with country unemployment rate and the impact of this combined effect on the probability of protest participation.
