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1-Page Summary of The Net Delusion

Overview

The internet has had a huge impact on society. It has made the world more connected and globalized. Many people in Western countries believe that this connectivity will spread democracy around the world, but they might be wrong about it.

While the internet can be a great tool for spreading good ideas and information, it’s also been used by both authoritarian and democratic governments to suppress dissent. In this talk, you’ll learn about how in some parts of the world, people have gotten arrested for liking something on Facebook.

You’ll also discover how authoritarian regimes use the Internet to spread propaganda. You’ll find out why 1.7 million Facebook users were not able to raise $20,000 for a cause.

Big Idea #1: The radio helped tear down the Berlin Wall, but the internet does not help overthrow modern dictators.

Some people believe that the power of radio was a key factor in the fall of the Berlin Wall. They think that this means that new media, such as internet blogs and twitter feeds, will have similar effects on authoritarian regimes today. However, these two forms of communication are very different from each other; therefore they can’t be used interchangeably to understand history.

The fall of the Berlin Wall was a unique historical situation in which radio played an important role. Before the radio, there were no independent sources of information and people living under communist regimes had limited access to news from other countries. The power of radio led many Germans living in East Germany to become dissatisfied with their government and eventually rise up against it.

The Internet is like the radio in some ways, but it’s not as powerful. Why? Because the Internet can be manipulated to show only what certain people want you to see. That’s different from how a radio works because there are no filters on a radio signal. However, the Internet is easily controlled by those who know how to do so and therefore it doesn’t have the same political power as a radio does.

But what they don’t realize is that the internet can be controlled by authoritarian regimes. It’s not like radio, which was hard to control in East Germany because people could listen to broadcasts from West Germany. Today’s leaders can easily manipulate access to the internet and keep their citizens under control.

Big Idea #2: The internet doesn’t only threaten regimes – it can also strengthen them.

It is tempting to think that the internet can be used as a powerful weapon against political oppression. However, this may not always be true because it also helps support authoritarian regimes.

Internet bloggers can be supporters or critics of authoritarian regimes. Western bloggers typically promote Western values, while those from authoritarian regimes support nationalistic and xenophobic values. Authoritarian governments then encourage the pro-government bloggers. For example, Maksim Kononenko is a conservative Russian blogger who supports Putin’s government, even getting his own TV show on state television. The internet makes it easier for governments to find dissenters because they used to organize in the underground and hold secret meetings planning their protests that made it hard for the government to find them; however now with the internet it’s easier to monitor citizens which stops protests before they happen. Governments can also track down dissidents through social networks like Facebook by clicking “Like” on critical videos which turn people into targets for political suppression when friends notice this activity as dodgy and inform the government about them