Americans are increasingly watching what they say online because they know the government is watching them.
That’s according to a newly-released study examining the impact that widespread knowledge of the National Security Agency’s dragnet surveillance has had on online free speech in the years since whistleblower Edward Snowden blew the top off the agency’s activities.
The study, published in the journal Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, posits that widespread knowledge of government surveillance greatly reinforces groupthink in online communication.
To give an example of how widespread the problem could be, the researchers cited the following statistic from Pew: “[T]he vast majority of Americans—87%—are aware that their online actions are subject to government interception, a higher percentage than those who can identify the federal minimum wage.”
The researchers found that people who are aware that the government is watching their activities online don’t necessarily self-censor on purpose—but they are more likely to avoid taking controversial or contrarian positions in group discussion.
The unconscious self-censorship was especially prominent among study subjects who both know their online activities are being monitored and support that monitoring as a valid national security tool.
When the aforementioned surveillance hawks “perceive they are being monitored, they readily conform their behavior—expressing opinions when they are in the majority, and suppressing them when they’re not,” the researchers found.
Here’s the full study:
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