Authoritarian Governments in Cyberspace

• 1. Authoritarian Governments inCyberspace Evgeny MorozovOct 08/2009

2. US Presidents the Internets"The Goliath of totalitarianism will be brought down by the David of the microchip"Ronald Reagan, 1989 Photo: National ArchivesTrying to control the Internet is like trying to nailJell-o to the wall Bill Clinton, 2000 Photo: White HouseImagine if the Internet took hold in China. Imagine how freedom would spread" Photo: White HouseJohn Lennon George Bush, 1999 3. Main tenets of cyber-utopianism... 1. The growth in highly mobile/decentralized Internetcommunities will result in the decline of the authoritarian(nation) state2. Better access to information/technology makes people more likely to dissent/revolt3. New information networks make it easier to raise globalawareness/avoid genocides new pressures on theseregimes4. Internet has empowered dissidents & activists, makingthem more effective/louder than before 5. Internet has created new ways of conducting publicdiplomacy - smart power allowing ordinary citizens to partake & influence foreign policy 4. Main tenets of cyber-utopianism... 1. The growth of highly mobile/decentralized Internet communities will result in thedecline of the authoritarian (nation) state 2. Better access to information/technology makes people more likely to dissent/revolt3. New information networks make it easier to raise globalawareness/avoid genocides new pressures on theseregimes4. Internet has empowered dissidents & activists, makingthem more effective/louder than before 5. Internet has created new ways of conducting publicdiplomacy - smart power allowing ordinary citizens to partake & influence foreign policy 5. Will the growth of highly mobile/decentralized communitiesreally result in the decline of the authoritarian state? 6. Does technology erode state power? The role of the nation state will changedramatically and there will be no moreroom for nationalism than there is forsmallpox...Being Digital (1996), Nicolas Negroponte 7. Information Revolution Marches On?Photo by oceandesetoiles/Flickr CC 8. Welcome to Cyber-Utopia!Connectivity X Devices=Democracy Photo: Gadl/Flickr CCPhoto: Jeremy Visser/Flickr CC 9. Blogs are the new faxes Photo: Marcin Wichary/Flickr CC 10. Authoritarian regimes USE the Web to...1. Spread propaganda/advance their ownagenda (spinternet) 2. Generate useful info & add legitimacy (authoritarian deliberation)3. Monitor/identify dissent early on (gulag 2.0) 11. I. The Rise of the Spinternet 12. Is message control viaDigg and Wikipediamore difficult/less effective than viaPravda? 13. Who sets the agenda in social media?Wikipedia: 1% of users responsible for half of the site's edits Digg: top 100 users responsible for half of the site's top stories 98% chance your submission won't make the Digg frontpage today 14. Subvert and Profit 15. Gameabiliy and astroturfing 16. Facebook friends at 20 cents/friend 17. Aggressive Search Engine Optimization 18. Also: the UK 19. Knowledge transfer 20. China's 50 Cent Party (wumaodang) ~280,000 members Regular National/Local Trainings Priority Sites Required to Cooperate 21. Russia: New Media Stars start-up 22. Researching the basic ways of promoting state interests with the help of specialized social networks 23. Kremlin: generou$ propaganda In 2010 Russia will spend more on propagandathan on fighting unemployment Budgets of online-only state media up by 75%despite the crisis Huge increase in international outreach 24. Iran: Spinning Religious DiscourseBureau for the Development of Religious Web Logs established at the Religious School ofQom in 2006350 teachers and clergy in Qom were trained,with at least 800 studentsParticular concern: blogging women 25. Iranian blogosphere: 2008 26. Iranian blogosphere: 2009 27. Iranian efforts pay off 28. Nigeria's Anti-Blogging Project 29. Who'll lead Egypt's Facebook revolution? 30. Spinning vs CensoringPhoto by Mr.Enjoy/Flickr CC 31. Streisand effect to blame 32. II. Authoritarian Deliberation Photo by dunechaser/Flickr CC 33. Russia: Bloggers' Chamber Instead [of becoming a base for the civil society], RuNethas become home to various antisocial and criminalelements...these people must feel the hand of thegovernment Internet censorship. Censorship effortsshould be very selective, very responsible, and verycareful. And they should follow the deliberations of thenational consultative body that would be comprisedof the leading Internet personalities and bloggers.This new consultative body should develop a set of rulesguiding "tolerant online behavior" that would help toextirpate all virtual confrontationSergey Mironov, Sept 30/2009 34. We pay great attention tosuggestions and advice from ournetizens. The web is an importantchannel for us to understand theconcerns of the public and assemblethe wisdom of the public. Hu Jintao, 2008 35. Often more critical than official media Ashley Esarey, based on 2006 data/500 blogs 36. China: Elude the Cat 37. Uses of authoritarian deliberation 1. Generate information useful to government:wikis 2. Share the blame for failed policies with the public: spin 3. Increase legitimacy (both at home and abroad):scale 38. Authoritarian Deliberation in China CCP gains the ability to legitimate policies byreference to a relatively inclusive deliberationprocess rather than to an official ideology... Thisincreases the political capacities of the CCP whilefurthering the careers of party officialsHe Baogang and Mark Warren, The Deliberative Turn in Chinese Political Development 39. Kremlin's new project: Liberty.ru 40. Pavlovsky on Liberty.ruLiberty.ru will help political parties tap into collective wisdom, see what people are really concerned about; the parties would even be able to borrow some major policy points from these online discussionsGleb Pavlovsky, 2009 41. Thailand: Crowdsourcing Censorship 42. Saudi Arabia's flagging campaign 43. III. Monitoring & Identifying Dissent Early On 44. China: TRS Technologies Currently [the police force] still does surveillance via keyword searches on search engines, with every officer being given a certainthe 200-people-strongtoMarketing manager of number of keywordsTRS Technologies cover...We equipped eight police stations in Shanghai with our data-mining equipment...Now the work of 10 internet cops can be done by just one Marketing Manager, TRS Technologies (200+ staff) 45. Thank you!Blog: neteffect.foreignpolicy.com Twitter: evgenymorozov