Electoral Fraud, Social Media, and Whistleblowing During the 2011 Russian Legislative Elections

This paper examines the effect of social media on electoral fraud reporting during the 2011 Duma elections in Russia. The paper uses an original data set on the number of electoral violations reported in each of the region to estimate the effect of political and socio-economic factors on voters willingness to use the Internet and social media to fight electoral fraud. The empirical results point to a strong link between economic modernization in a region and voters' use of social media for political purposes. Modernization of production space was one the most important factor that affected whistleblowing by Russian voters