From bloggers of Myanmar’s 2007 Saffron Revolution to tweeters of the protests that followed Iran’s 2009 election, the Internet has proven itself to be a tool in promoting change and democracy in the world.
But Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion, argues that it doesn’t always work out that way.
“The change is not always positive,” Morozov tells NPR’s Neal Conan. “Yes, [social media] are affecting the world. But it also looks like the other side — the authoritarian governments — are getting empowered as well.”
It makes an important point
>many Iranians found the elections to be fair; they were willing to defend the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if needed< We all forget that with any protest, whether it be Iranian elections or even the student protests in the UK. It is a very small minority of people over the whole country that takes part in these things. Even when you had a million people marching against the Iraq War in the UK that is a 9th of the people that were able to but didn't bother voting in last years election, let alone the 29.6 million people who did vote. And most protests are much much smaller. Again take the student protests. If you actually asked people what they though, what if they said students have it easy and they SHOULD have to pay their way? (as they do in other countries). That's true democracy. But protestors never see this.