[Reader-list] two studies on chinese internet

[geert lovink]

China, Cuba, and the Internet Counterrevolution (news release)

              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.

See http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/wp21.asp for more
information and the report.

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> From: Lokman Tsui [mailto:lokkie at lokman.nu]
> Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 9:07 AM
> To: chineseinternetresearch at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] final draft of thesis - internet
> control and the chinese government
>
>
> Dear all,
>
> The final draft of my thesis is available at
> http://www.lokman.nu/thesis
> it is in pdf format and about 800Kb. The abstract is below.
> Comments are welcome.
>
>
> Abstract
>
> Initially, the internet was an open medium with certain characteristics
that
> made it hard to control. According to Western journalists and politicians,
> the efforts of the Chinese government to control the internet are doomed
to
> fail. This study attempts to counter this view and discusses to what
degree
> the Chinese government can control the internet in China and, more than
> that, to what degree the internet can be used as a means for control.
> Methodologically, the four modalities of control (the law, architecture,
> social norms and the market), set forth by Lessig will be used. As a
result,
> this study will offer a legal, technical, social and economical
perspective
> in discussing the degree of internet control in China. Lessig further
argues
> that the architecture of the internet is undergoing changes that continue
to
> enable control. A prime example of using architecture as a means of
control
> is the concept of the Panopticon prison, invented by Bentham and mediated
by
> Foucault. The concept of the Panopticon will be used to show how the
> internet can be used as a means for control. The conclusions are that the
> Chinese government are quite capable of controlling the internet in China
> and that China has the perfect ingredients for deploying a digital
> Panopticon. This digital Panopticon will continue to improve and develop,
> driven by the market. These conclusions show that the internet, to
contrary
> belief, can be controlled and even be used as a means for control.
>
>
>
>  Key words
>
> internet regulation, internet control, social control, political control,
> censorship, privacy, surveillance, panopticon, Lessig, internet in China,
> Chinese Internet, media.
> --
> "The lure of imaginary totality is momentarily frozen before the dialectic
> of desire hastens on within symbolic chains."
> http://www.lokman.nu            [-silent dreams-]
> http://www.wongkarwai.net   Because We Have Taste