The internet has been hailed as a leveling force that is reshaping activism.  From the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street to Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, digital activism seemed cheap, fast and open to all.  Now this celebratory narrative finds itself competing with an increasingly sinister story as platforms like Facebook and Twitter--once the darlings of digital democracy--are on the defensive for their role in promoting fake news.  While hashtag activism captures headlines, conservative digital activism is proving more effective on the ground.  Jen Schradie's talk, based on her book, The Revolution That Wasn't, identifies the reasons behind this previously undiagnosed digital-activism gap.  The findings have national and even international implications for a growing right-wing populist movement.

Jen Schradie is a sociologist and Assistant Professor at the Observatoire sociologique du changement at Sciences Po in Paris.