Does Online Incivility Mobilize or Demobilize Political Participation? Evidence From Hong Kong’s Social Movement

Abstract

Due to the anonymity of network environments, the use of uncivil words in online political communication has become increasingly pervasive, especially around intensive political events. Existing studies have addressed that exposure to online incivility could influence political participation, but the evidence is mixed. Hong Kong’s anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (anti-ELAB) movement, as a heated political issue in recent years, provides an opportunity to investigate the impact of online incivility exposure on participation in a more natural setting compared to experimental design. By combining computational online content and representative survey data, this study found that exposure to online incivility can mobilize both institutionally and non-institutionally political participation. A dissatisfaction mediation model was proposed to explain the mechanism. Dissatisfaction with the democratic situation in Hong Kong was found to be the key mediator.