Social media and politics in Central and Eastern Europe Introduction : social media politics and democracy in the post transition Central and Eastern Europe Pawel Surowiec and Václav Stetka Who is afraid of the platforms : adoption and strategies of use of social media by politicians in the Czech Republic Alena Macková Václav Stetka Jan Zápotocký Radim Hladík Presidential elections campaining in Romania : connecting with civic ness on Facebook Monica Patrut Towards self mediatization of politics : representatives use of Facebook and Twitter in Croatia and Hungary Norbert Merkovity Political use of social media and personalisation of political communication in Slovenia Jernej Amon Prodnik Tomaz Dezelan and Alem Maksuti Professionalization and intentional disengagement : Facebook campaigning in the local Bulgarian elections in 2015 Ognyan Seizov We have been to Bolotnaya : Russian protests the online public sphere and the discourse of division Alina Ryabovolova The networked public sphere and Ukrainian journalists Dmytro Hubenko and Melissa Wall Branding Poland online : propagating and resisting nation branding on Facebook Pawel Surowiec and Magdalena Kania Lundholm The dilemmas of social media enabled civic activism : the case of sexual minorities in Lithunia Galina Miazhevich Conclusions Václav Stetka and Pawel Surowiec