Associate professor Erik Nisbet is co-author of a new study that found increased support for online political censorship. The study analyzed Russian citizens and found that those who relied more on Russian national television news perceived the internet as a greater threat to their country than others.

“This is actually more insidious. The government doesn’t have to rely as much on legal or technical firewalls against content they don’t like. They have created a psychological firewall in which people censor themselves,” Nisbet said.

Nisbet conducted the study with Olga Kamenchuk, a visiting assistant professor, and doctoral student Aysenur Dal, both from Ohio State. Their results appear in the September 2017 issue of the journal Social Science Quarterly.