Beyond virtual solidarity: the use of digital communication technologies in the anti-repression movement in Extremadura, Spain.

Abstract

This article explores the uses of digital communication technologies in a social movement that questions the legitimacy of digital mobilization practices. The text analyzes the uses of digital technologies in the Asamblea Antirrepresiva de Extremadura—a political group set up in in Cáceres (Spain) in 2018, in response to the context of threats to freedom of expression with which activists identify different judicial and police actions. This research draws on data from an ethnography carried out in different cities in southwestern Spain between 2018 and 2020. This article shows that in this movement, legitimacy in the uses of digital technologies relies on their appropriateness to the conventions that regulate practices in public space and on their capacity to circulate objects that generate new public expressions. The ethnography reveals that these uses tend to empower activists who exhibit more initiative, challenging those approaches in which digital technologies lead to more ‘horizontal’ forms of participation.