Social Media, Extremeness and Elite Responsiveness: Evidence from Chile

How responsive are political elites in social media to variation in access to the internet? Are politicians altering their ideological positions due to their interactions in social media? Although a growing literature studies the impact of social media on electoral behavior, less is known about how access to the internet, and interactions in Facebook and Twitter, affect political elites. I study the impact of the internet and social media on elite responsiveness and extremeness in Chile, exploiting the rapid increase in 3G coverage and a political crisis that substantially increased social media consumption. I found that politicians are very responsive in social media to geographic variation in access to the internet. Even in a national crisis, districts with high access to 3G are more likely to interact on Facebook and Twitter. Likewise, I found that politicians move to ideologically extreme positions due to high exposure to social media. Exploration of mechanisms suggests that such movement is likely because extremeness is rewarded in social media and because voters with high access to the internet are increasingly skeptical of democracy.