talk by Evgeny Morozov at Stanford University in October 2009

1. Authoritarian Governments in
Cyberspace
Evgeny Morozov
Oct 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 Archives
“Trying to control the Internet is like trying to nail
Jell-o to the wall”
Bill Clinton, 2000
Photo: White House
“Imagine if the Internet took hold in China.
Imagine how freedom would spread"
Photo: White House John Lennon George Bush, 1999

3. Main tenets of cyber-utopianism...
1. The growth in highly mobile/decentralized Internet
communities will result in the decline of the authoritarian
(nation) state
2. Better access to information/technology makes people
more likely to dissent/revolt
3. New information networks make it easier to raise global
awareness/avoid genocides→ new pressures on these
regimes
4. Internet has empowered dissidents & activists, making
them more effective/louder than before
5. Internet has created new ways of conducting “public
diplomacy” - 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 the
decline of the authoritarian (nation) state
2. Better access to information/technology makes people
more likely to dissent/revolt
3. New information networks make it easier to raise global
awareness/avoid genocides→ new pressures on these
regimes
4. Internet has empowered dissidents & activists, making
them more effective/louder than before
5. Internet has created new ways of conducting “public
diplomacy” - smart power – allowing ordinary citizens to
partake & influence foreign policy

5. Will the growth of highly
mobile/decentralized communities
really result in the decline of the
authoritarian state?

6. Does technology erode state power?
“The role of the nation state will change
dramatically and there will be no more
room for nationalism than there is for
smallpox...”
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 CC
Photo: 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 own
agenda (“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 via
Digg and Wikipedia
more difficult/less
effective than via
Pravda?

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

16. Subvert and Profit

17. Gameabiliy and astroturfing

18. Facebook friends at 20 cents/friend

19. Aggressive Search Engine Optimization

23. Also: the UK

24. “Knowledge transfer”

25. China's 50 Cent Party (wumaodang)
~280,000 members
Regular National/Local Trainings
“Priority” Sites Required to Cooperate

26. Russia: “New Media Stars” start-up

28. “Researching the basic ways of promoting
state interests with the help of specialized
social networks”

29. Kremlin: generou$ propaganda
• In 2010 Russia will spend more on propaganda
than on fighting unemployment
• Budgets of online-only state media up by 75%
despite the crisis
• Huge increase in international outreach

30. Iran: Spinning Religious Discourse
“Bureau for the Development of Religious Web
Logs” established at the Religious School of
Qom in 2006
350 teachers and clergy in Qom were trained,
with at least 800 students
Particular concern: blogging women

31. Iranian blogosphere: 2008

32. Iranian blogosphere: 2009

34. Iranian efforts pay off

35. Nigeria's “Anti-Blogging” Project

36. Who'll lead Egypt's Facebook
revolution?

37. Spinning vs Censoring
Photo by Mr.Enjoy/Flickr CC

38. Streisand effect to blame

39. II. “Authoritarian Deliberation”
Photo by dunechaser/Flickr CC

43. Russia: Bloggers' Chamber
“Instead [of becoming a base for the civil society], RuNet
has become home to various antisocial and criminal
elements...these people must feel the hand of the
government Internet censorship. Censorship efforts
should be very selective, very responsible, and very
careful. And they should follow the deliberations of the
national consultative body that would be comprised
of the leading Internet personalities and bloggers.
This new consultative body should develop a set of rules
guiding "tolerant online behavior" that would help to
extirpate all virtual confrontation”
Sergey Mironov, Sept 30/2009

44. “We pay great attention to
suggestions and advice from our
netizens. The web is an important
channel for us to understand the
concerns of the public and assemble
the wisdom of the public”.
Hu Jintao, 2008

46. Often more critical than official media
Ashley Esarey, based on 2006 data/500 blogs

47. China: “Elude the Cat”

48. 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

49. Authoritarian Deliberation in China
“CCP gains the ability to legitimate policies by
reference to a relatively inclusive deliberation
process rather than to an official ideology... This
increases the political capacities of the CCP while
furthering the careers of party officials”
He Baogang and Mark Warren, ““The Deliberative Turn in Chinese Political Development””

50. Kremlin's new project: Liberty.ru

51. Pavlovsky on Liberty.ru
“Liberty.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 discussions”
Gleb Pavlovsky, 2009

52. Thailand: Crowdsourcing Censorship

53. Saudi Arabia's “flagging” campaign

59. III. Monitoring & Identifying
Dissent Early On

62. 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-strongto
Marketing manager of number of keywords
TRS 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)

69. Thank you!
Blog: neteffect.foreignpolicy.com
Twitter: evgenymorozov