Social Media and Elections in Singapore: Comparing 2011 and 2015 Weiyu Zhang* National University of Singapore This paper applies a theoretical approach that focuses on the interaction between media, politicians, activists, and citizens to investigate the influence of social media during two recent general elections in Singapore. Taking into account the combination of authoritarian governance and popular elections in this city-state, this paper utilizes a mixed methods approach (i.e., a combination of statistics and virtual ethnography) to analyze four aspects of this influence. First, social media are used by the opposition parties because they are the only alternative to use in disseminating information and fostering dialogue. However, the ruling authorities use the same social media to counter the opposition. Second, social media empower the opposition by serving as efficient tools to mobilize, organize, and engage active citizens. However, compared to the traditional grassroots approach, online mobilization is not as effective as expected. Third, social media are able to change the perceptions of ordinary citizens regarding the opinion climate, which could be to either the advantage or the disadvantage of the opposition. Finally, the youngest age group (i.e., 21– 30 years) was surveyed in both 2011 and 2015 to investigate their responses to these changes. Because of the complex influence of social media in Singapore, the citizens in this age group are particularly prone to being swing voters. Keywords: electoral authoritarianism, elections, Singapore, social media, voters On 7 May 2011, Singapore’s ruling party, the People’s Action Party (PAP), received the lowest number of votes (60%) since the city-state’s independence in 1963. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long 1 (2011) acknowledged that it was “a very different world in 2011 compared to 2006” because social media exerted an influence that was “much bigger than in previous elections.” This “watershed election” posed a substantial challenge to the ruling party’s decades-long dominance in this country. The social media were credited by journalists, commentators, and politicians from both the ruling party and the opposition. Although many believed that this trend would continue, on 11 September 2015, in a general election in which for the first time since independence all constituencies were contested, the PAP won in landslide victory, gaining 70% of the votes and recapturing one parliament seat from the opposition. In the post-election press conference, Prime Minister Lee commented, “we also have gone into the social media. Since the election results, since 12 o’clock, I already had two Facebook posts.” 2 The intriguing role of social media in elections in particular and in politics in general has been a worldwide phenomenon. For instance, Obama’s successful exploitation of social media in his campaign led to the coining of the term “the Facebook election” (Johnson & Perlmutter, 2010). Similarly, in the authoritarian regimes of the Middle East, the recent usage of Twitter in organizing protests and movements has led commentators to wonder whether such radical political changes could be called “the Twitter Revolution.” 3 Nevertheless, in countries such as China, social media are censored and well controlled by the government. 4 It is clear that social media, which are the most recent development in new media, play an increasingly important role in politics. However, as many scholars have observed, the manner in which social media have become influential is conditioned by several factors, including who use them (e.g., political