Analysis of online behavior of Russian social media users during the periods of political tension in 2020-2021

The article explores online behavior of social media users during two periods of political tension in 2020-2021 in Russia. Online behavior is considered as one of the principal factors influencing political participation. The author analyses the case of protests, held in Russia in the beginning of 2021. That period of political tension is compared with another one (August-September 2020) when there were no civil protests. The analysis provides evidence that politicization of internet users increased during the period of the protests. It affected both production and consumption of the social media content. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok turned out to be the most politicized, their users showed greater involvement in political discourse and greater polarization. The politicization of users increased along with the growth of their interest in certain types of content: live coverage of events those stimulated political tension, as well as personal attitudes to what was happening expressed by public persons and ordinary users (in Twitter). The Facebook audience shows great interest in the media content and status persons commentaries. Telegram, LiveJournal, Instagram users are less politicized and polarized. News and comments of political strategists dominated here during both periods. The study also reveals about 15 media outlets that had the greatest impact on the social media agenda during the analyzed periods. Content analysis of social media does not allow us to judge the cause-and-effect relationships between online and offline mobilization, but suggests that politicized platforms will more likely catalyze protest activity rather than non-politicized ones.