Authors@Google: Evgeny Morozov April 6, 2011

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"The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom"
by Evgeny Morozov

A timely examination of the promise and peril of the Internet in politics with controversial author Evgeny Morozov. As Egypt, Tunisia, Iran, and other regimes meet resistance from citizens using technology to plan and document revolt, Morozov offers a rare and well-argued critique of the web as a democratizing force.

"Evgeny Morozov offers a rare note of wisdom and common sense, on an
issue overwhelmed by digital utopians." —MALCOLM GLADWELL

"The revolution will be Twittered!" declared journalist Andrew
Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran in June 2009. Yet for all the
talk about the democratizing power of the internet, regimes in Iran
and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian
governments are effectively using the internet to suppress free
speech, hone their surveillance techniques, disseminate cutting-edge
propaganda, and pacify their populations with digital entertainment.
Could the recent Western obsession with promoting democracy by digital
means backfire?

In this spirited book, journalist and social commentator Evgeny
Morozov shows that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature
of the Internet, Western do-gooders may have missed how it also
entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder—not
easier—to promote democracy. Marshaling compelling evidence, he shows
why we must stop thinking of the Internet and social media as
inherently liberating and why highly ambitious and seemingly noble
initiatives like the promotion of "Internet freedom" might have
disastrous implications for the future of democracy as a whole.

About the Author
Evgeny Morozov is a visiting scholar at Stanford University and a
fellow at the New America Foundation. He is a contributing editor to
Foreign Policy and Boston Review and a regular contributor to The Wall
Street Journal, Newsweek, The Economist, The International Herald
Tribune, Prospect, Dissent, and other publications.