Digital grassroots platforms conceal inner-circle control within antipolitical movements

Evidence

Italy’s Movimento 5 Stelle showed itself more consistent than any other antipolitical movement in embracing digital tools as a means of addressing the question of institutionalization. Grillo, who consistently stressed that his movement/party was “neither left nor right,” sought, alongside the late Gianroberto Casaleggio and his son Davide, to promote online participation. They developed the Rousseau platform, where supporters could debate political proposals and vote on the party’s program in a spirit of grassroots democracy. Yet M5S rank and file quickly discovered that the agenda was largely set by a small inner circle, if not by Grillo himself: when two politicians proposed a loosening of immigration laws, they were publicly reprimanded by Grillo, despite a majority of members having voted in favor. — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 196

Categorization

• QUESTION: A useful concrete case for Jäger’s claim that hyperpolitics mobilizes without organizing — does Rousseau count as pseudo-organization?
• XREF: connects to: A major Brazilian protest movement organized as consensus-based and leaderless by design — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 149; Online activism for the Syrian opposition was built on fabricated personas — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 307; Public social media platforms expose protest strategy to adversaries — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the…, 549