Liberation Technology: Social Media and the Struggle for Democracy

by Larry Diamond, Marc F. Plattner

Overview

The revolutions sweeping the Middle East provide dramatic evidence of the role that technology plays in mobilizing citizen protest and upending seemingly invulnerable authoritarian regimes. A grainy cell phone video of a Tunisian street vendor’s self-immolation helped spark the massive protests that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt’s “Facebook revolution” forced the ruling regime out of power and into exile.

While such “liberation technology” has been instrumental in freeing Egypt and Tunisia, other cases—such as China and Iran—demonstrate that it can be deployed just as effectively by authoritarian regimes seeking to control the Internet, stifle protest, and target dissenters. This two-sided dynamic has set off an intense technological race between “netizens” demanding freedom and authoritarians determined to retain their grip on power.

Liberation Technology brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of “liberation” versus “control” with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.

This book also includes in-depth analysis of specific technologies such as Ushahidi—a platform developed to document human-rights abuses in the wake of Kenya’s 2007 elections—and alkasir—a tool that has been used widely throughout the Middle East to circumvent cyber-censorship.

Liberation Technology will prove an essential resource for all students seeking to understand the intersection of information and communications technology and the global struggle for democracy.

Contributors: Walid Al-Saqaf, Daniel Calingaert, Ronald Deibert, Larry Diamond, Elham Gheytanchi, Philip N. Howard, Muzammil M. Hussain, Rebecca MacKinnon, Patrick Meier, Evgeny Morozov, Xiao Qiang, Rafal Rohozinski, Mehdi Yahyanejad

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421405681
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	07/30/2012
Series:	A Journal of Democracy Book
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Larry Diamond is coeditor of the Journal of Democracy, codirector of the International Forum for Democratic Studies, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Marc F. Plattner is vice president for research and studies at the National Endowment for Democracy. Plattner and Diamond are coeditors of the Journal of Democracy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Larry Diamond ix

I Liberation vs. Control in Cyberspace

1 Liberation Technology Larry Diamond 3

2 Liberation vs. Control: The Future of Cyberspace Ronald Deibert Rafal Rohozinski 18

3 International Mechanisms of Cyberspace Controls Ronald Deibert 33

4 Whither Internet Control? Evgeny Morozov 47

II Liberation Technology in China

5 The Battle for the Chinese Internet Xiao Qiang 63

6 China's "Networked Authoritarianism" Rebecca MacKinnon 78

III Liberation Technology in the Middle East

7 Ushahidi as a Liberation Technology Patrick Meier 95

8 Egypt and Tunisia: The Role of Digital Media Philip N. Howard Muzammil M. Hussain 110

9 Circumventing Internet Censorship in the Arab World Walid Al-Saqaf 124

10 Social Media, Dissent, and Iran's Green Movement Mehdi Yahyanejad Elham Gheytanchi 139

IV Policy Recommendations

11 Challenges for International Policy Daniel Calingaert 157

Index 175