The Internet, Activism and Southeast Asia
An article in this mornings Wall Street Journal, written by James Hookway, talks about the crack down of some Southeast Asian governments on bloggers expressing themselves freely on the internet. It’s a good article which can be read here: Web Censoring Widens Across Southeast Asia.
The thought of having my personal thoughts, watched, tracked, captured and limited by my government or to be used against me is frightening.
Censorship is, as we know, a way to control. Control and manipulation is the corner stone to the survival of these Southeast Asian governments. Public humiliation and use of force are additional tools they use.
China is one of the world largest economies and one of the largest users of censorship. If political and security issues are highly scrutinized and social interaction watched closely how can social media work or survive? How can social media bring about social change in this part of the world? How do you get people to become activist, when their their government deems their activities unacceptable, and more often a direct threat to the status quo. Governments are even censoring some internet tools as being to dangerous to the existence.
However, like we saw in Iraq after the elections, these government can’t always out smart their people and their use of technology. As these people become more savvy with new tools and the basics of grassroots activism we will see these government struggle more and more to maintain control.
The question is do we have a moral obligation to assist our brother and sisters in their struggle for freedom of speech and life?
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