Perceptions of Politically Motivated Hacking and Hacktivism in the Russian Online Communication on VK, 2020-2021

Student: Kuzovkova Elizaveta

Educational Programme: Political Science (Bachelor)

Year of Graduation: 2021

This study makes a contribution to the literature on politically motivated hacking and hacktivism by expanding political science approach to these phenomena and introducing quantitative methods of analysis to it. What is more, this is the first work to investigate the Russian context specifically regarding the theme. The key findings of this paper can be summarized as follows: 1) in the Russian online communication strong opinions about certain actions associated with hacking for political purposes are present; 2) they are connected to and affected by individual's attitudes towards the current political system; 3) there are statistically significant differences in network features of patriotic and pro-oppositional social media groups. Future research can adopt and develop this perspective, using one of the prominent methodologies of social network analysis of the Internet - hyperlink network analysis.

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