Democracy Lab Weekly Brief, November 22, 2016

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Ilya Lozovsky warns that social media is destroying our ability to have a coherent conversation about politics.

Raphael Mimoun and Joseph Brennan see a window of opportunity for pro-democracy activists in Thailand.

Shaazka Beyerle and Tina Olteanu tell the story of a long-shot protest movement in Romania that managed to put a stop to an enormous mining project.

Erica Chenoweth makes the case that social media can sometimes help dictators more than peaceful opposition movements.

And now for this week’s recommended reads:

In the Washington Post, Fred Hiatt assures us that Donald Trump’s victory is not the final word on democracy. Anne Applebaum urges Trump’s opponents to take to politics instead of taking to the streets.

In the Financial Times, Francis Fukuyama warns of a new age of populist nationalism.

In the Guardian, Brian Klaas fears that dictators around the world have much to celebrate about Donald Trump’s victory.

In the New York Times, Zeynep Tufekci argues that Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg is not getting the point about the perniciousness of fake news on the site.

In a new paper for the Carnegie Endowment, Marwan Muasher, Marc Pierini, and Fadil Aliriza call for the Tunisian government to undertake broader reforms to ensure its democratic transition works for ordinary citizens.

For Reuters, Wa Lone and Yimou Lee report that a new auxiliary police force in Burma’s Rakhine State is raising fears of more anti-Muslim violence.

Photo credit: KENA BETANCUR/AFP/Getty Images