This article explores how contemporary authoritarian regimes deploy digital technologies to reinforce their authority and cultivate political legitimacy. By examining mechanisms of surveillance, censorship, disinformation, and social media manipulation, it demonstrates how these tools are employed to suppress dissent, shape public discourse, and manufacture an appearance of public consent. The study highlights how performance-based legitimacy is bolstered by claims of stability, order, and service delivery, while narrative management enables regimes to delegitimize opposition and frame dissent as external interference. Legal frameworks and state–private sector collaboration further institutionalize digital control, presenting repression as lawful governance. Yet, these strategies are not without risks: exposure of surveillance, declining credibility, citizen resistance, and technological countermeasures threaten the durability of such legitimacy. The article concludes that understanding digital authoritarianism is vital for scholars and policymakers seeking to safeguard democratic practices and digital rights in an era of expanding state technological capacity.