The Net Delusion summary

It’s tempting to think that the information available on the internet is the ultimate weapon against political oppression – but unfortunately, reality disagrees. In fact, the internet also helps support authoritarian regimes.

One reason for this is that internet bloggers can both be supporters as well as critics of authoritarian regimes.

Do you think that only authoritarian regimes like China censor and manipulate the internet? In fact, Western governments do the same.

Western governments use the internet to track down radicals and criminals in the same way that authoritarian regimes track down dissidents. For example, they attempt to shut down radical websites like far left or far right message boards, and track down their visitors and operators.

Everyone knows that the internet makes it easier for people to connect with one another. But while some use the internet to organize Harry Potter meet-ups, other users with bad intentions connect with similarly minded people to organize for malicious purposes.

For example, criminals and narrow-minded people use the internet to connect with peers like everybody else.

With billions of web pages online and millions more added every day, you could think that it’s nearly impossible to censor the internet. This is true in terms of mechanical censorship – but with the help of well written programs, modern regimes can achieve the impossible.

This is thanks to modern software that allows predictive and automatic censorship.

The internet can be a powerful weapon in the struggle against authoritarian regimes. But the same regimes can also wield the internet to counter dissidents with their own propaganda.

For example, in authoritarian countries like Venezuela, websites like Twitter and Facebook are not only used by critics of the government, but also by the government itself. While many dictators initially tried to fight or ignore the internet, they’ve now realized its potential for propaganda, and have learned to use it for their own purposes.

Everyone has been sent an email asking for signatures for an online petition. But when people support a cause online they may think that that gesture alone was enough – and that they don’t have to engage with the issue directly.

For example, people can support a political cause by joining a group on social networks like Facebook. Psychologists have found that just joining one of these groups makes politically minded people as happy as writing a letter to their elected representatives – a method of political activism that’s actually effective.

The key message in this book:

The internet does not only help to spread democracy and freedom – it can also distract its users from politics, distribute anti-democratic propaganda and allow intolerant groups to organize themselves. But authoritarian regimes aren’t the only guilty parties: Western governments also manipulate and censor the internet as they see fit.