Evgeny Morozov presented a document that discusses how the internet and digital technologies are impacting society and politics in different ways around the world. Some key points made include that the internet has been both praised as enabling the spread of freedom and democracy, but also criticized as enabling more control and censorship by authoritarian governments. New digital tools are allowing new forms of both political activism and control over information. The impact of these technologies depends on how they are used and the context of different countries.

1. Evgeny Morozov
TED Global 2009

2. Praise for Belarus...
“Last outpost of tyranny
in Europe!”
Condoleezza Rice
“Not free!”
Photo: Antonis/Flickr CC
Freedom House
"A model social state like
the one we're
beginning to create!"
Hugo Chavez
Photo: Lhoon/Flickr CC

3. Information Revolution Marches On
Photo by oceandesetoiles/Flickr CC

4. 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

5. “Blogs are the new faxes”
Photo: Marcin Wichary/Flickr CC

6. Welcome to Cyber-Utopia!
Connectivity X Devices = Democracy
Photo: Gadl/Flickr CC
Photo: Jeremy Visser/Flickr CC

7. iPod Liberalism
Photo: Slff/Flickr CC
Photo by myuibe/Flickr CC

8. “Drop iPods, not Bombs”
Photo: Mager Leagues/Flickr CC Photo: United States Army

9. Intended vs Actual
Photo: Anitacanita/Flickr CC source: CrookedBrains

10. Spin + Internet = Spinternet
Photo by ajax/Flickr CC

11. Spining vs Censoring
Photo by Mr.Enjoy/Flickr CC

12. China: “Elude the Cat”

13. Authoritarian Deliberation
Photo by dunechaser/Flickr CC

14. 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

15. Iran: Twitter counter-revolution?
Photo by nomaan/Flickr CC

16. But what about “digital natives”?
Photo by Trynes/Flickr CC

17. Cyber-Activism vs Cyber-Hedonism
Photo by fhashemi/Flickr CC Photo by linlin/Flickr

18. Catalyst of change vs opium for the masses
HKmPUA
Photo by HKmPUA/Flickr CC

19. Digital Renegades vs Digital Captives
Photo by murplejane/Flickr CC Photo by seandreilinger/Flickr CC

20. Brave New World of Cyber-Hedonism
Category China US
% of teenagers addicted 42 18
to the Web
% of teenagers with 61 13
“parallel life” online
% of teenagers not 25 12
feeling OK going w/t
Internet for a day
% of teenagers who 32 11
said Internet broadens
their sex life
Young Digital Mavens”, JWT/IAC, Fall 2007

21. Hierarchy of Cyber-Needs
CAMPAIGN:
Amnesty, HRW
LEARN: Wikipedia, TED
SHARE: Facebook, Twitter
TALK: Email, instant messaging, blogs
HAVE FUN: pornography, BitTorrent, YouTube
Some Right Reserved, Evgeny Morozov

22. Which way freedom?
Photo by abhijeetrane/Flickr CC

23. Thank you!