The Internet and state control in authoritarian regimes: China, Cuba and the counterrevolution

First Monday ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanthi Kalathil ◽  
Taylor C. Boas
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
State Control

scholarly journals Unchained freedom in cyberspace: a new danger for children’s rights

2020 ◽  
pp. 391-395
Author(s):  
Shahin Sabir Mammadrzali
Keyword(s):  
Moral Development ◽  
International Law ◽  
Children's Rights ◽  
Children’S Rights ◽  
The Internet ◽  
State Control ◽  
Entertainment Education ◽  
Child Rights ◽  
Digital Rights ◽  
Rights Of The Child

The article is dedicated to the harm of cyberspace over children's digital rights in the Internet and introduces conclusions for better defeating digital violations. Digital violations against child rights exist in various forms. Although violation of children's digital rights is the reality of current life, still there is no unified and well-developed system of solutions to restrict freedom in cyberpace. Cyberspace opens new borders for entertainment, education, cultural and moral development of children. Yet, possible difficulties arise when it comes to suitable child rights. Children's digital rights is significantly more complex and multifaceted. Few norms in international law can be found for the regulation of cyberspace and the digital rights of children in this new medium. The content and scope of digital rights of children have not been defined yet. Thus, systemic international and national cyberspace mechanisms relating to the rights of the child should be created on the basis of state control.

Let Many Civil Societies Bloom: The Rise of Consultative Authoritarianism in China

2013 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. 19-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica C. Teets
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Public Welfare ◽  
Development Model ◽  
State Control ◽  
New Model ◽  
Local Officials

AbstractIn this article, I analyse civil society development in China using examples from Beijing to demonstrate the causal role of local officials' ideas about these groups during the last 20 years. I argue that the decentralization of public welfare and the linkage of promotion to the delivery of these goods supported the idea of local government–civil society collaboration. This idea was undermined by international examples of civil society opposing authoritarianism and the strength of the state-led development model after the 2008 economic crisis. I find growing convergence on a new model of state–society relationship that I call “consultative authoritarianism,” which encourages the simultaneous expansion of a fairly autonomous civil society and the development of more indirect tools of state control. This model challenges the conventional wisdom that an operationally autonomous civil society cannot exist inside authoritarian regimes and that the presence of civil society is an indicator of democratization.

Do the Social Web 2.0 Media Foster Democratization?

2016 ◽  
pp. 314-330
Author(s):  
Rasoul Namazi
Keyword(s):  
Web 2.0 ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Political Information ◽  
The Internet ◽  
New Information ◽  
The Social ◽  
Negative Impacts

This chapter studies the influence of the Internet and new Web 2.0 technologies on the process of democratization in authoritarian regimes. The objective is to show that the new information technologies are not necessarily helpful to dissident movements and have even some negative impacts on the process of democratization. The author questions the capacity of Internet to transmit political information discusses how the new technologies contribute to the depoliticization of societies by creating passive citizens in authoritarian regimes. This chapter also shows how authoritarian regimes use new information technologies as instruments of control and repression and questions the effectiveness of the new cyber-activism by explaining the structure of the Internet and discussing the capacity of the new technologies in creating political community.

Control Activities of the Russian State over Information Relations on the Internet

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Константин Струков ◽  
Konstantin Strukov
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Legal Education ◽  
The Internet ◽  
State Control ◽  
Russian State ◽  
State Participation ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Use Of The Internet ◽  
Restrictive Measures

The article considers some problems of carrying out control activities by the Russian State over information relations on the Internet. The author notes that the subject mater of the bitter dispute between supporters and detractors of the necessity of enhancement of state participation in information relations, arising on the Internet, is the issues, related to admissible limits of state control. Any strengthening of state control over information relations, arising on the Internet, as well as the necessary introduction of any other restrictive measures is only admissible after the thorough analysis of the proposed novations, monitoring and arranging of public opinion. In his research the author touches upon such problematic aspects as the absence of a unified concept of state control in Russia; difficulties in detecting lawbreakers and bringing them to responsibility for law infringements, committed on the Internet, as well as revealing such infringements; the use of the Internet for the purposes of prevention of infringements and legal education of people.

scholarly journals Empowering activists or autocrats? The Internet in authoritarian regimes

2015 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 338-351 ◽  
Author(s):  
Espen Geelmuyden Rød ◽  
Nils B Weidmann
Keyword(s):  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet

scholarly journals Bloggers and Deliberative Democracy in Indonesia's Blogosphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (28) ◽  
pp. 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jacky
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Deliberative Democracy ◽  
Virtual Community ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
The Public ◽  
Study Support ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Relationship

<p>The study of the relationship between the Internet and democracy has produced two main debates. Some studies have said that the Internet has significantly contributed to democracy while others disagree. This study challenged the thesis of Habermas (2006) about the relationship between the Internet and Deliberative Democracy. This study was built on the following propositions: that the Internet causes bloggers to become parasitic, fragmented, and isolated; that it is effective in breaking down authoritarian regimes to create an egalitarian relationship, but it fails as a deliberative medium. This study used the concept of the public sphere and Habermas’ Deliberative Democracy (2006). It also explored the use of 2.0 qualitative methods with a hacking analysis perspective. Moreover, it gained data from the Internet by using the latest version of 2.0 Web and a virtual community. It focused on both discursive and non-discursive construction. The results of this study support only one of Habermas’ three propositions: that the Internet creates egalitarianism. Thus, this study rejects Habermas’ thesis apart from this one proposition. Furthermore, this study recommends that further research be done using the same propositions but on Twitter instead of the Internet.</p>

scholarly journals The Role of ICT in Addressing Corruption Across Political Regimes

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-55
Author(s):  
Mergen Dyussenov
Keyword(s):  
Mass Scale ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Political Regimes ◽  
The Common ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Key Resources

The paper reviews existing literature on the role of the internet in addressing corruption by breaking it down into instrumental, important, and critical roles, across two types of political regimes – (semi-)authoritarian and democracies. It analyzes the key resources and strategies utilized by governments and activists across these regimes, and looks into the common themes that emerge as a result of analyzing literature sources, i.e. the notion of crisis, lack of a single accepted definition of corruption across nations, factors found to positively correlate with reduced corruption, and the evolving nature of the internet. The paper finds that neither regime can be perfectly immune against mass-scale protests caused by dissatisfaction with worsening corruption. However, the regimes differ in the nature of protests, with semi-authoritarian regimes witnessing more violent and aggressive uprisings fueled by long-accumulated social disappointment with previous repressive regimes than across much of democracies.

scholarly journals R̶e̶s̶i̶s̶t̶a̶n̶c̶e̶ censorship is futile

First Monday ◽  
2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zubair Nabi
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Side Effect ◽  
State Level ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Citizen Journalism ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
The World ◽  
Online Activism ◽  
Using Data

The Internet has become the new battle ground between authoritarian regimes and ordinary individuals who want unimpeded access to information. The immense popularity of online activism and citizen journalism enabled by social media has instigated state level players to partially or completely block access to the Internet. In return, individuals and organizations have been employing various anti-censorship tools to circumvent these restrictions. In this paper, we claim that censorship is futile as not only has it been ineffective in restricting access, it has also had the side effect of popularising blocked content. Using data from Alexa Web rankings, Google Trends, and YouTube Statistics, we quantify the ineffectiveness of state level censorship in Pakistan and Turkey and highlight the emergence of the Streisand Effect. We hope that our findings will, a) prove to governments and other players the futility of their actions, and b) aid citizens around the world in using legal measures to counteract censorship by showing its ineffectiveness.

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