El Uso de las Plataformas Facebook, Twitter y Whatsapp como Medio de Participación Política Online en los Procesos Electorales Ecuador 2021

In Ecuador, since the 2017 presidential elections, the incidence of online political participation has been explored, which highlights other forms of political participation, where the use of the Internet is key. Since the 2000s in the country, the Internet has been progressively presenting an influence as a resource for communication and social exchange, which fosters interactive, immediate and multidirectional communication that redefines and provides feedback to different social groups (Caldevilla-Domínguez, 2010). At a socio-political level, the use of the Internet stands out because it configures a tool with broad horizontality, which enables communication that is less hierarchical and more participatory than the traditional ones in institutions and political parties (Castells, 1997), while allowing more people with fewer resources can be informed and express their opinions (Espelt, Rodríguez-Caballeira and Javaloy, 2015). This makes it easier for political communication to be activated through digital platforms such as Facebook or Twitter, which are progressively being activated as a political tool for different social groups, representatives of the State and opponents (Chekunova, Barabash, Trofimova and Lenko, 2016, Zumárraga-Espinosa, 2020).