[huridocs-tech] The Internet, China and Cuba

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China, Cuba, and the Internet Counterrevolution
New Working Paper Challenges Assumption that the
Internet Defies Authoritarian Control

A new Carnegie Endowment working paper finds that, contrary to
conventional wisdom, the Internet does not necessarily spell the demise
of authoritarian rule. Examining the cases of China and Cuba, Shanthi
Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas, two Carnegie information revolution
experts, show that authoritarian regimes can actually maintain control
over the Internet's political impact and benefit from the technology.
Read the full text at: http://www.ceip.org/pubs.

The Internet and State Control in Authoritarian Regimes:
China, Cuba, and the Counterrevolution
Working Paper No. 21, by Shanthi Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas

Cuba and China represent two extremes of authoritarian Internet control:
Cuba has sought to limit the medium's political effects by carefully
circumscribing access to the Internet, while China has promoted
widespread access and relied on content filtering, monitoring,
deterrence, and self-censorship. These choices of strategy reflect a
more fundamental difference between the two regimes' levels of economic
liberalization. China has promoted widespread Internet access to
capitalize on the economic potential of a booming information sector and
technologically savvy workforce, while Cuba, less committed to a market
economy, has been willing to forgo some of the Internet's potential
economic benefits.

Kalathil and Boas show that China and Cuba, despite their strategy
differences, have effectively limited use of the Internet to challenge
the government. Beijing, for instance, has responded harshly to the
Falun Gong's use of the Internet with a series of technological
measures, restrictive laws, and well-publicized crackdowns, making it
more difficult for followers to communicate. Havana has carefully meted
out access among civil society organizations according to their
political orientation while dissident and human rights organizations
have little hope of even gaining access. Both governments have also been
successful in making extensive use of the Internet as a propaganda tool,
partly by setting up their own web sites to disseminate the official
government line.

In a field where scholarly work has only begun to tread, this working
paper sets out a framework for analyzing the Internet strategies of
different authoritarian regimes, and helps to shed light on the impact
of the Internet on authoritarian rule in general.

Shanthi Kalathil, associate in the Information Revolution and World
Politics Project at the Carnegie Endowment, has written extensively on
Chinese market reforms and the political impact of the information
revolution.

Taylor C. Boas, project associate in the Information Revolution and
World Politics Project, has published several articles on the impact of
the Internet in authoritarian regimes, with particular emphasis on Cuba.




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