Transcript Cyberpolitics - University of Brighton

Cyberpolitics
CMC LM 3
"Politicians used to put out leaflets
with pictures of their family and pet dog
and copies of their lousy speeches and
it would be enough. Unfortunately many
politicians now just create a web site
with pictures of their family and pet dog
and their lousy speeches but it is not
good enough," Stephen Coleman, Oxford
Internet Institute
‘The Technology out there is going to
change the country therefore it is
going to change politics.’Doug Bailey,
publisher, Hotline
‘I can’t think of anything except kissing
babies that you can’t do online’ Michael Cox,
scientist George Washington University
Characteristics of the Internet

Seen as an unusual form of communication that
falls neither into private or public form of
communication.
 Has various various features; email, publishing
showcase. Organisational facilities, synchronous
and asynchronous features, bulletin boards, chat,
MUDs, etc
 Can be one to one or one to many.
 Can be non-hierarchical and anarchical
Internet’s features for political
Empowerment
-
Internet has a five plus one component; email
penetration, electronic newsletters, electronic
forum, archive for easy retrieval, the world wide
web which is also publishing showcase. The plusone component is the existence of informational
and organisational links for spreading material and
co-ordinating activities in offline mode (Walsch
1999: 2).
Internet and Politics

With the advent of new media, there has been
much speculation about its effects on enhancement
of the ‘political’ in many societies.
 This notion of the technology offering
opportunities for broadening political participation
has been discussed in many political frameworks
from totalitarian systems to democratic
frameworks.
 In effect, there is a sense of technological
determinism with regard to this sort of
speculation.
Participatory Democracy

Democracy hinges on the principle of
participation and representation.
 The internet due to its features of
connectivity and interactivity promises the
capacity to facilitate ‘mediated democracy’.
 The public and ruling elite can in a
theoretical sense communicate without the
distortion of media.
Democracy and the Internet

In a liberal democratic framework, the Internet has
often been associated with the notion of virtual
‘public sphere’.
 Habermasean ‘public sphere’ was based on
rational discourse and participation being the pillar
of democratic decision making.
 In this sense, the Internet offered the potential for
citizens to interact with the process of policy
making.
Critique of the ‘virtual public
sphere’
This notion of the Internet constituting a
virtual public sphere has been criticised;
 Technology does not fix the problem of apathy nor
can it induce participation.The core issue
associated with the decay of democracy remain.
 It can lead to a form of ‘mouse-click democracy’
where people become trigger-happy (plebscitary
democracy.
 Even if everyone took part – how will
governments deal with all this feedback?
Critique of Public Sphere

What about issues of digital divide? Issues of
accessibility and use, education levels.
 There were concerns about the bias of the media –
which tended to favour the more educated and the
politically more engaged.
 It also assumed that the new medium was free
from ‘refeudalisation’ (Habermas) which the
traditional media is often accused of.
The Internet and Authoritarian
Governments

The Internet as having the potential to
challenge the dominant discourse of the
government and traditional media.
 Giving dissidents a global platform to
disseminate their views.
 Links them with other like-minded people
 Access alternative forms of information
Activism and Democratisation



Hill and Hughes’ (1998:129-130) research found that
'people were becoming internet activists to share beliefs.'
They also point out that people posting Internet messages
that oppose specific governments and governmental
policies are doing so in those newsgroups that are, on
average, devoted to countries that are low in
democratization.
They infer that 'maybe people do use the Usenet
newsgroups as a relatively safe form of political expression
against less-democratic even repressive regime’ (Hill and
Hughes 1998: 88). Specifically Internet message about the
less democratic nations is far more likely to be antigovernment.
Degree-Zero Politics



Tiziana Terranova (2002) points out the Internet offers the
potential for the production of different type of politics
where the capacity to connect and disconnect is used
productively.
social movements can form on the Internet but rarely do
they solidify into concrete social movements which
spillover in the offline society. These virtual formations
melt back into the virtuality and she terms this quality
‘degree zero’.
Harry Cleaver (1979) refers to this aspect of virtual
activism as ‘hydrosphere’ - a fluid space ‘changing
constantly and only momentarily forming those solidified
moments that we call organisations.
Distinct Characteristic of
Cyberpolitics



Politics in cyberspace has its own distinct characteristics –
above all much of the information that makes its way into
‘virtual reality’ is unreliable.
For example some of the pictures of atrocities against
Chinese Indonesian women (2000) posted on a website for
overseas Chinese turned out to be photographs of outrages
committed elsewhere and at other times. Yet is it precisely
the ease with which virtual reality can be manipulated that
makes it ripe for the politics of mobilisation (Hughes 2000:
204).
Reconciling Politics and the
Internet




Need to take into consideration issues of digital divide and inherent
biases with the Internet.
Issue of diffusion – It does not have the centrality of traditional media
in such societies.
Governments can restrict access through regulations and technology –
proxy servers or banning websites even though complete control is
questionable. Cuba simply outlaws the sale of personal computers to
individuals. Myanmar outlaws personal ownership of modems. The
Saudi government censors the Internet by requiring all web access to
be routed through a proxy server that it edits for content.
The issue of surveillance and privacy – the Internet can be used by
authorities to monitor their movement and discourse.
Internet and Complete Control

Some of the assumptions about Internet and
empowerment are made on the basis that it is not
possible to control the Internet.
 While complete control is tenuous it can be
controlled to a degree.
 According to Lessig (1999) the Internet can be
controlled through markets, regulation, social
norms and the ‘code’ – where the architecture of
the Internet can be manipulated to receive or
censor information.
So does the Internet enhance
the political?

Many theorists are divided on this.
 Technology is neither good, bad or neutral
and its effects is moulded by the society it is
suspended into.
 New Media itself cannot change the
political scene, it’s the extent to which it is
adopted used and incorporated into a
society that determines change.
Cyberpolitics and Power

The Internet can be used by those in power
to further augment their presence. Hence it
has been argued that the Internet amplifies
the existing state of power relations in
society.
 Many governments have a strong web
presence. Many government departments
and offices have online presence.
Examples of Cyberpolitics
American Elections




Recently in terms of the American Elections, Bush
campaign strategy on the Internet includes registering
voters, identifying supporters. The campaign site also
contains pages that display downloadable forms for voters
registration and absentee voting.
Bush’s web feature include a fact or ‘flog’ Log. The latter
exposes factual inaccuracies of opponents.
Kerry used to the Internet to effectively raise at least $14
million.
Both candidates used the Internet to facilitate meetings and
interaction among supporters. Available: http://www.foxnews.com
Internet and the Global society


From the mid 1990s when an avalanche of e-mails pushed
governments to sign the international Treaty to Ban
Landmines, civil society's activities have become more and
more dependent on information and communication
technologies (ICTs).
Indymedia –Indymedia is a collective of independent
media organizations and hundreds of journalists offering
grassroots, non-corporate coverage.. Civil society
organisations like this are trying to publicise views
independent of governments and authorities.
Internet in Asia

The relationship between the growth of the
Internet and attempts to control the Net reflect the
democratic potential of the medium.
 In China, online activism have become more
evident as Internet users express support for each
other online.
 Falungong Spiritual Movement – most prominent
example illustrating the subversive potential of the
Internet. E-mail played a central role when its
members secretly planned and organised a mass
demonstration in Beijing in April 1999.
Subversive Role of the
Internet



An example of the politically subversive role of the
Internet comes from Indonesia. The fall of Suharto’s New
Order regime was said to the backed up by an e-mail list
providing the intellectual elite of Indonesia with the right
ammunition to counter the propaganda machine of
Suharto.
TheApakabar list, moderated by an American from
Maryland in the US played a crucial role in the fall of the
regime (Harsono, 1996; Sen and Hill 2000). From
Digitisation and its Asian Discontents: The Internet,
Politics and Hacking in China and Indonesia. By Joen De
Kloet. Firsty Monday.
Http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue7_9/Kloet/
Implications of Sept 11

According Reporters Sans Frontiers (RSF) China
has the biggest number of Internet-users in prison,
a total of 48 as of Jan 2004 and nine in Vietnam.
 RSF also asserts that since Sept 11, the threat of
terrorism has been used as justification in many
countries to increase surveillance on the Internet.
 Following Bali bombing Indonesian government
passed anti-terrorism laws, increasing police
powers and allowing detention without trial.(Asia
Rights: (1) July 2004).
Where the Internet has made
a difference

In Serbia, the chief democratic radio station
simply shifted online through servers based in the
Netherlands when then-President Slobodan
Milosevic shut down domestic transmissions
during his final months in power in autumn 2000.
 The Burmese expatriate opposition operates
almost entirely online and has begun slowly
forcing reform in that country's autocracy.
 In many former USSR-controlled states the
Internet was used to keep the global community
informed