shut down a physical protestation is loose , just utilise capsicum pepper plant spray liberaly and arrest anyone that ca n’t run away . shut down on-line protests with popular overture is an solely dissimilar topic . And that has oppressive regimes around the world very worried .
Almost six month to the twenty-four hours after the ouster of Tunisian chair Zine El Abidine Ben Ali , a little protest of some 150 people formed in the middle of Tunis .
“ We are all Samir Feriani , ” the dissident chanted , brandishing photo of the forty - four - twelvemonth - previous constabulary military officer . Feriani had been arrested two calendar week antecedently after writing to Tunisia ’s interior government minister , naming several luxuriously - ranking ministry official who he state were responsible for kill protesters and confide other human right abuses during the Tunisian revolution . In one of the two letters print in a local magazine , he further claim that ministry functionary had been destroy sensitive archives since Ben Ali ’s ousting , include archives of the Palestinian Liberation Organization ( ground in Tunis from 1982 to 1994 ) , which he say documented Ben Ali ’s family relationship with Israeli word . Feriani was charged with “ harm the external security measure of the state , ” “ releasing and distributing data probable to harm public Holy Order , ” and “ criminate , without proof , a public agent of breach the law . ”
Tunisia ’s twitterati clamored to support Feriani , dismayed that elements and behaviour of the older regime lingered on in the new Tunisia . “ Where are our journalist , the polite society and the political parties ? ” asked a Twitter user call in @emnamejri . On Facebook , people create Page calling for his release . They posted pic of protests , liaison to word about his case , and aggregated reactions of citizens around Tunisia . They circulated the condemnation by Human Rights Watch , which summed up many multitude ’s feelings about his arrest : “ At a time when many Tunisians believe that the functionary who terrorized people under Ben Ali remain warm within the security establishment , the probationary governing should be encouraging tin whistle - blowers , not using the ousted government ’s discredited laws to imprison them . ”
At a league in New York about the net and government that same month , somebody asked Riadh Guerfali - the militant who made the 1984 Ben Ali mash - up back in 2004 - whether he was upset that the Tunisian gyration would not end well . “ I am optimistic that we will acquire this struggle , ” he said . “ At the present time there is still lots of trouble , ” he continue . “ But public impression is here . ” Despite the steep uphill battle , the difference between then and now is that Tunisians have chip at out a blank in the media and on the net for discourse and disputation that is vastly unsubtle and more approachable than under Ben Ali . “ If we can say , this is untimely , we can say the somebody creditworthy must resign , ” that is the first step , Guerfali narrate the room full of young American political operator , bloggers , journalists , and techies . “ thing never ever , anywhere in the world , interchange by itself . It takes the pressure of public ruling . ”
This verity applies to everyone , everywhere . Democracy will not be delivered , renew , or upgraded automatically , like the latest Netflix megahit through our broadband connexion and smart phones . The future of freedom in the Internet age depends on whether people can be vex to take obligation for the future and bit . Just as our individual actions and choice as citizens , parent , teacher , employee , handler , and government officials mix to regulate the kind of world we inhabit in , the actions and choices of each and every one of us are shaping the Internet ’s future .
element of a transnational campaign to defend and expand cyberspace freedom have start to egress . Like the Internet itself , this motion is decentralized , broadly speaking if at all organise , and driven often by groups and individuals at the edge reacting to specific problem . For now the motion is neither sufficiently unspecific nor sufficiently potent to keep the abuse of power by politics or potbelly systematically in check . But the rotation , and set about revolutions , of early 2011 have jolt many more hoi polloi around the earth into becoming actively engaged with the power struggle for freedom and ascendance of the Internet .
What should this apparent movement be aim for ? Establishing some sort of global UN- like uber - government to manage and restrain transversal - border digital power is neither realistic nor desirable . Nor is Robin Hood – elan cyber - vigilantism and digital insurgent war . afford human nature and the reality of today ’s world , it is also impossible to anticipate to pop out whole afresh with some sort of utopian digital democracy in a pristine and politically unspoiled frontier of cyberspace .
A more naturalistic and democratic plan of attack is to build and beef up alternative netizen - driven institutions and communities that can subsist alongside existing ones , eventually shifting the balance of business leader both online and off . At the same clock time , we must devise more efficacious and innovative way of life to cumber all forms of digital office within fair limits , whether that power is exercised by governments , corporations , or activistic drudge networks of varying ideological and spiritual stripes . The first step is to build up much tolerant public awareness and involution . People want to blockade thinking of themselves as passive “ users ” and “ client , ” and start act like citizens of the Internet - as “ netizens . ”
Excerpted with permission from Consent of the Networked : The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom , by Rebecca MacKinnon . Available from Basic Books , a appendage of The Perseus Books Group . Copyright © 2012 .
Consent of the Networked : The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom is useable fromConsentoftheNetworked.com
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