Crowdsourcing Rebellion: Digital Fundraising for Ethiopian Rebel Groups

Transnational crowdsourcing from diasporas reshapes the organisational and discursive terrain of rebellion. This relatively new stream of resources has specific consequences for civil war dynamics that differ from other mechanisms of rebel financing. We illustrate how crowdsourcing shapes insurgencies by comparing three rebel groups in Ethiopia. We use an original data set of contributions made to rebel-affiliated GoFundMe campaigns and related statements by insurgent leaders and diaspora donors to demonstrate how this mechanism works. Our analysis indicates that patterns of crowdsourcing vary across these three insurgencies with distinctive network patterns and specific narratives developed jointly by insurgent and diaspora leaders.