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03/27/2004 Archived Entry: "THE WEB WON'T TOPPLE TYRANNY"

Posted by steve @ 04:07 PM EST [Link]

I COULD HAVE TOLD YOU THAT: Joshua Kurlantzick has an interesting two part essay at The New Republic exploring the hype from the early 1990s that the World Wide Web is a force for political liberation.

My experience in the Vientiane café was a sobering antidote to a pervasive myth: that the Internet is a powerful force for democracy. For years, a significant subset of the democratization industry--that network of political scientists, think tanks, and policymakers--has placed its bets (and, in many cases, its money) on the Web's potential to spread liberal ideas in illiberal parts of the world. Whereas once American politicians and democratization groups focused on older technologies, such as radio, today their plans to spread democracy rest in considerable part on programs for boosting Internet access. In early March, Secretary of State Colin Powell told Congress that a crucial part of the Bush administration's democratization initiative will be establishing "American corners" in libraries overseas, complete with Internet kiosks where locals can surf the Web. In the Middle East, American diplomats have touted their recent online interactions with locals, such as Web dialogue between the American consul in Jeddah and Saudis.

But world leaders, journalists, and political scientists who tout the Internet as a powerful force for political change are just as wrong as the dot-com enthusiasts who not so long ago believed the Web would completely transform business. While it's true that the Internet has proved itself able to disseminate pop culture in authoritarian nations--not only Laos, but China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere--to date, its political impact has been decidedly limited. It has yet to topple--or even seriously undermine--its first tyrannical regime. In fact, in some repressive countries the spread of the Internet actually may be helping dictatorships remain in power.

I'm not quite ready to give up on the Web just yet but I've always thought it's potential was overstated.

Read on.