This paper presents the first subnational analysis of a state’s internet access control’s impact on the use of force and violent repression. The author argues that there exists an inverse relationship between internet censorship and violent repression tactics: A more open internet and social media platform allows closer surveillance on specific actors and movements, and therefore more surgical and targeted strikes; whereas broad blackouts and shutdowns result in less information on specific targes and therefore result in more general, violent repression tactics. The author proves this conjecture with a case study on data on state killings during the Syrian civil war, using supervised text classification. It was found that greater internet access is generally associated with an increase in targeted repression, whereas the opposite is true for areas with more general internet blackouts. State violence is defined as targeted if the victim is selected on the basis of individual or collective characteristics.
