July 2012 | 145 Taiwan Journal of Democracy, Volume 8, No. 1: 145-167 Activating Support for Social Movements The Effect of the Internet on Public Opinion toward Social Movements in Hong Kong Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph Man Chan Abstract Despite the stagnant democratization process, social movements and citizens’ contentious collective action have become a prominent feature in Hong Kong politics in the past few years. One specifc issue which has aroused the interest of both scholars and commentators is the role of new media technologies in the protest politics in Hong Kong. While much research in Europe and America has documented the Internet’s ability to facilitate the expansion of social movement mobilization and participation, this essay examines whether the Internet has helped to foster positive public opinion toward social movements, their goals, and their collective action. Based on considerations of the characteristics of the online information environment and people’s information-seeking behavior, this essay develops the hypotheses concerning persuasion, support activation, and opinion radicalization. These hypotheses are examined in the case of the anti-Express Rail protests in Hong Kong in early 2010. Analysis of survey data (N=1,007) confrms the support activation and opinion radicalization hypotheses. Theoretical and social implications of the fndings are discussed. Key words: Internet, social movements, public opinion, protests, opinion radicalization, Hong Kong. Although institutional democratization has been slow in Hong Kong over the past ffteen years, arguably the general public has become more and more active in expressing its opinions and attempting to infuence the government through various means, including through participation in contentious collective actions. After the large-scale protest on July 1, 2003, in which more than 500,000 Hong Kong people marched on the street to protest against the Francis L. F. Lee is an Associate Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. <francis_lee@cuhk.edu.hk> Joseph Man Chan is a Professor in the School of Journalism and Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong. <jchan003@gmail.com>