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The Geopolitics of Internet Control
Unformatted Document Text:  Draft dated: 2/15/07 NOT FOR CIRCULATION OR CITATION Forthcoming: in Deibert, Palfrey, Rohozinski, Zittrain, (eds.), Access Denied (MIT Press: 2007) 1 1 Good for Liberty, Bad for Security? Global Civil Society and the Securitization of the Internet Ronald J. Deibert Rafal Rohozinski Introduction The spectacular rise and spread of NGOs and other civil society actors over the last two decades is attributable in part to the emergence and rapid spread of the Internet, which has made networking among like-minded individuals and groups possible on a global scale. Powerful, search technologies like Google, "me-media" tools such as blogs and myspaces, and communicative systems like Skype, make it easy to form virtual communities, mobilize support, and effect political change. Widespread access to inexpensive digital cameras, editing systems, and distributional channels allows anyone with desire and a few hundred dollars to become a potential Spielberg or Riefenstahl. Causes of all shapes and sizes seek and find moral and financial support on a global basis and consequently, local politics now plays itself out on a planetary scale. But the technological explosion of global civil society has not emerged without unintended and even negative consequences, particularly for non-democratic and authoritarian states. The Internet has enabled new, nimble and distributed challenges to these regimes, manifest in vigorous opposition movements, mass protests, and in some cases even revolutionary changes to long-established political authority. Even among democratic states, the explosion of global civil society has presented serious challenges, though of a slightly different nature. Just as progressive and social justice groups have made use of the Internet to advance global norms, so too have a wide variety of resistance networks, militant groups, extremists, criminal organizations, and terrorists. Whereas once the promotion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) was widely considered benign public policy, today states of all stripes have been pressed to find ways to limit and control them as a way to check their unintended and perceived negative public policy and national security consequences.

Authors: Deibert, Ronald. and Rohozinski, Rafael.
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Draft dated: 2/15/07 NOT FOR CIRCULATION OR CITATION
Forthcoming: in Deibert, Palfrey, Rohozinski, Zittrain, (eds.), Access Denied (MIT Press: 2007)
1
1
Good for Liberty, Bad for Security?
Global Civil Society and the Securitization of the Internet
Ronald J. Deibert
Rafal Rohozinski


Introduction

The spectacular rise and spread of NGOs and other civil society actors over the last two
decades is attributable in part to the emergence and rapid spread of the Internet, which
has made networking among like-minded individuals and groups possible on a global
scale. Powerful, search technologies like Google, "me-media" tools such as blogs and
myspaces, and communicative systems like Skype, make it easy to form virtual
communities, mobilize support, and effect political change. Widespread access to
inexpensive digital cameras, editing systems, and distributional channels allows anyone
with desire and a few hundred dollars to become a potential Spielberg or Riefenstahl.
Causes of all shapes and sizes seek and find moral and financial support on a global basis
and consequently, local politics now plays itself out on a planetary scale.
But the technological explosion of global civil society has not emerged without
unintended and even negative consequences, particularly for non-democratic and
authoritarian states. The Internet has enabled new, nimble and distributed challenges to
these regimes, manifest in vigorous opposition movements, mass protests, and in some
cases even revolutionary changes to long-established political authority. Even among
democratic states, the explosion of global civil society has presented serious challenges,
though of a slightly different nature. Just as progressive and social justice groups have
made use of the Internet to advance global norms, so too have a wide variety of resistance
networks, militant groups, extremists, criminal organizations, and terrorists. Whereas
once the promotion of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) was
widely considered benign public policy, today states of all stripes have been pressed to
find ways to limit and control them as a way to check their unintended and perceived
negative public policy and national security consequences.


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