Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
become, the internet and civil society have increasingly come to co-evolve,
energizing and shaping one another in time and space.
Despite the hyperbole exaggerating the internet's capacity to effect social
change, the global diffusion of the internet has created a growing challenge for
many authoritarian regimes and greatly enabled the growth and effectiveness of
global civil society. Email petitions, cyberprotests, calls for action, advocacy of
various marginalized political causes, and the blogosphere have become an
integral part of political action, allowing local social movements to ''jump scale''
by reaching national and global audiences (Adams
1996
). In response, government
censorship, ranging from relatively mild steps such as anti-pornography measures
to the arrest and execution of cyberdissidents, has become an inescapable
dimension of the geographies of cyberspace. One-quarter of the world's netizens
live under the harshest forms of censorship, and in most countries self-censorship
accomplishes what governments have not.
The information technology revolution, however, has also brought with it promise
of economic growth and improved productivity. Many governments, therefore, are
caught in a conundrum, wishing to encourage the growth of information technology
sectors on the one hand but fearful of its political repercussions on the other. In
attempting to manage internet access and content, states must take care not to alienate
investors, tourists, entrepreneurs, and software developers. For some states, such as
Myanmar or North Korea, such concerns are irrelevant. But most governments seek to
appropriate the economic benefits of information technology without paying the
political costs of enhanced democracy. The strategies used to negotiate this predica-
ment are contingent and reflective of a wide constellation of political, economic, and
cultural circumstances; thus, censorship and its resistance are geographically specific.
Contrary to early utopian predictions, the growth of the much vaulted global
''information society'' will not necessarily lead to greater democracy worldwide, but,
in a more sober view, to enhanced avenues for civil discourse.
References
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Africa ICT Policy Monitor (2006).Retrieved from
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Ahmed, A. (2002). Pakistan's blasphemy laws: Words fail me. The Washington Post, May 19.
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www.press.umich.edu/jep/archive/Anderson.html
Anderson, K. (2009). Net surveillance and filters are a reality for Europe, too. Retrieved from
The Guardian, June 24.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/24/kevin-anderson-
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http://www.hrinfo.net/en/reports/net2004/
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