Internet & Democracy Blog

Young bloggers are more worried about shopping, sex and music than politics, according to a recent article by Anthony Loewenstein. Loewenstein still finds that there is a unique power to blogging, though, when he writes:

Across the world, young generations are challenging tired state media by writing online about politics, sex, drugs, relationships, religion, popular culture and especially Angelina Jolie. From Egyptian activists opposed to female circumcision to outspoken, pro-Western women in Cuba, people are being empowered by new technology to create spaces away from the prying eyes of meddling authorities.

Lowenstein’s views are based on interviews he did with bloggers, a bit different than our more empirical approach, but still interesting findings, and more in line with a journalistic analysis anyway. It seems that bloggers around the world are arguing more for incremental reform than revolution. Lowenstein quotes an Iranian blogger in Tehran, “Most of the people (I know are) in favour of reform, not revolution, because people are too tired to experience another revolution.” A common refrain he heard from bloggers in other countries he visited, including Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Cuba and China.

Yet, he still found an increase in awareness about political rights because of the Internet and satellite TV in the countries he visited.

He also talks about censorship in China, noting as we did that many Chinese are not as sensitive as those in the West regarding censorship. And in China, he also quotes a young Internet user who says she and her friends prefer to use the Internet for “entertainment, sharing information, earning money and other fun.”

Loewenstein concludes, however, that these types of activities are still revolutionary:

Letting people speak and write for themselves without a Western lens is one of the triumphs of blogging. The culture of blogging is unlike that of any previous social movement. Disjointed and disorganised, its aims are deliberately vague. While many want the right to be critical in the media, others simply crave the ability to date and listen to subversive music. That in itself is revolutionary for much of the world.

I’m looking forward to reading Loewenstein’s new book, The Blogging Revolution, which forms the basis of his article–but only after I finish John Palfrey and Urs Gasser’s new book on digital natives, Born Digital, which has also just been released!

The news media in the U.S. and abroad has kept a watchful eye on China’s “Great Firewall.” Those who are critical of Beijing’s Internet governance policies have zeroed in on censorship issues in particular. What is perhaps as interesting and somewhat under-reported are stories of Chinese citizens attempting to circumvent government censorship.

Recently, NPR had an interesting piece, which detailed the importance and regularity of text messaging to modern Chinese. Correspondent Laura Sydell reports that political activists often utilize SMS technology to organize protests, as online platforms are routinely censored or taken down by government officials. Many citizens also relay criticisms of the regime through their mobile devices, instead of on the Web. Chinese activist Yu Jie says that he often receives “sarcastic jokes about corruption and government inefficiency” via text. It appears that SMS messaging provides a communication channel that is, for now, largely unchecked by state censors.

A Wall Street Journal article details how Chinese netizens have developed new technology that allows users to “write backwards” by flipping sentences for English phrases and shifting to a vertical orientation for sentences written in Chinese. Moreover, some utilize Twitter to send short bits of information at a quick speed, as to avoid censors.

Some sources heed caution, warning others not to be overly optimistic about the ability of Chinese citizens to evade government censorship. Open Net Initiative has tested purportedly unblocked foreign websites inside China, and unfortunately, many of the sites are still inaccessible. Nevertheless, it is interesting to think of how alternative technologies, like SMS and text inversion, allow at least some degree of freedom in a highly monitored digital landscape.