Posts, Patriots, and Propaganda: Nationalist Mobilization in Saudi Social Media

When can populations wield political influence in autocracies? Political science research emphasizes repression and co-optation as the main pillars of autocratic stability across a wide range of regime types. However, even in highly repressive autocracies, a third pillar of autocratic rule—legitimation—creates avenues for pro-regime political participation that can influence political decisions. Using the case of a highly repressive autocracy, Saudi Arabia, I demonstrate that the Saudi regime’s increasing adoption of nationalist (rather than religious) legitimating narratives has created an opening for pro-regime Saudi communities on social media to press for political actions by the state. I document how these communities take it upon themselves to enforce the respect they believe is due the Saudi nation (and themselves) by pressing for the dismissal of employees, the arrest and deportation of expatriates, and other policy changes. In building a theory of bottom-up policy influence, I contend that these nationalist pro-regime campaigns are successful (i.e. the regime bows to public pressure) when they target low-cost (but not costless) outcomes. Accordingly, I demonstrate that these communities have been successful at influencing low-level security actions (the arrest of foreigners and even some Saudis who speak derogatively about the Saudi nation, kingdom, or monarchy as well as low-level public policy decisions, such as extending students’ holidays). Less successful are those campaigns which try to force the regime to undertake costly investments or dismiss critical state employees, even if these might burnish its nationalist credentials. The article contributes to our understanding of authoritarian politics by demonstrating how public pressure can influence policy-making in beyond full-fledged demonstrations. Further, it highlights the central role of social media platforms for state-society relations in autocracies. Social media campaigns constitute a limited form of autocratic accountability for low-level policy decisions, albeit only for the regime’s own policy commitments. To substantiate my argument, I draw on quantitative analysis of relevant discussions on Twitter as well as in-depth interviews with some 90 Saudi nationalists conducted across Saudi Arabia between November 2021 and April 2022.