Democracy and the Internet in Tunisia
nbsp;Slate.com runs an article about the contrast between appearances and reality in Tunisia, with a shout-out to the OpenNet Initiative’s excellent report on Internet filtering in that country. Freedom of expression, or access to information, is a chimera in Tunisia. When ONI released the filtering study at the World Summit on the Information Society, Tunisian secret police surrounded the room where the release was being held – I remember getting tense updates via wireless e-mail from someone in the room. Tunisia is an excellent example, as Anne Applebaum notes, of the problem with promoting democracy: authoritarian regimes can be stable allies in the war on terror. And as China proves, countries that effectively control the information environment can better manage (if not control) dissent.
Filed under: Berkman, Filtering, Intermediaries, Internet & Society, international
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