| Governments see in Internet a weapon used by the US for regime change VoorArgument1 #90285 Governments don't really fear Internet per se - there is nothing about blogs or Twitter or Facebook that they should be afraid of. But they see the US government behind the Internet. They are afraid of US funding dissidence in order to promote regime change. |
MJ: Do authoritarian governments automatically see the internet as a threat?
Evgeny Morosov: It is true that authoritarian governments increasingly see the internet as a threat in part because they see the US government behind the internet. It would not be accurate to say they are reacting to the threat posed by the internet, they are reacting to the threat poised by United States via the internet. They are not reacting against blogs, or Facebook or Twitter per se, they are reacting against organizations like theNational Endowment for Democracy funding bloggers and activists. This fits into long-running fears about color revolutions and regime change facilitated from abroad. |