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The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov
The internet, far from promoting democracy or liberal values, has become a tool of authoritarianregimes, insists this trenchant survey
John Kampfner
Rarely can a book’s publication have been so well timed and so badly timed. When he began writinghis forensic account of the internet and its role in democracy promotion, Evgeny Morozov might haveassumed it would be required reading for geeks and diplomats. Now, thanks to Julian Assange and theWikileaks furore, it is required reading for all.Yet, through no fault of his own, the writer is unable to address the burning questions that have beenraised by the industrial leaking of confidential American government documents. Still, readers shouldnot be put off. The Net Delusion is a compelling primer and rebuff to the “cyber utopians” who haveargued with their characteristic ardour that the world wide web would join up citizens around the worldin a common fight against dictatorships. As Morozov puts it in his introduction, the internet promisedto be “the ultimate cheat sheet that could help the West finally defeat its authoritarian adversaries”.What the photocopier and fax machine did for the dissidents in 1989, the computer would do in China,Burma and beyond. As we all know, this has not happened. Why?Morozov guides the reader through the explanations. For starters, he argues (aided perhaps by hisBelarussian upbringing) that policymakers in the West consistently overestimate popular desire for change. He suggests that the overthrow of communism in the 1980s had more to do with structuralexplanations, such as an inability of Soviet bloc economies to produce consumer durables, than people power. Citing an intriguing thesis by two German academics, Opium for the Masses: How ForeignMedia Can Stabilise Authoritarian Regimes, Morozov contends that West German television, far fromincreasing the anti-communist yearnings of its East German brethren, served instead to anaesthetisethem to politics. Things really weren’t so bad under Erich Honecker when you could watch Dallas andMiami Vice. (Taking a leaf out of Honecker’s book, the modern Kremlin has taken to swampingRussia’s internet service with diversionary entertainment — everything from shows in which jealousspouses can spy on their wives or husbands, to a You’ve Been Framed type late-night nudity programme.)Where this book really comes into its own, however, is when describing the extent to which 21st-century authoritarians have learnt to exploit the internet for their own ends. Hugo Chavez, for instance,has a Twitter feed called Chavezcandanga (a mischievous play on the word devil) that purports to be aconversation between the Venezuelan president and supporters and critics, but which in reality is ahandy tool for pumping out propaganda (the amorous Chavez is also prone to respond to femaleinterlocutors with mild admonishments to his “darlings” and “cuties”). And I was fascinated to read not just how the Iranian regime saw off the “Twitter uprising” of June 2009, but how it went on to exploitthe same technology. Using social networking and texting, millions of citizens began receivingwarnings of “destabilising propaganda” disseminated by American-backed trouble-makers. Moresinisterly, once the revolts had died down, the security services then used details gleaned fromchatrooms and social-networking pages to track down and punish critics.The Chinese are particularly adept at using the internet as the ultimate surveillance tool to trace currentand potential dissidents. As the author remarks, we make it easy for authoritarians to find us. “Everytime we post a greeting to our friend’s Facebook wall…or leave a disapproving comment on the
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