• About the Current Issue: Does Internet Activism Work?

Lead Essay

• Toward a Greater Understanding of Internet Activism by Berin Szoka

  Berin Szoka surveys recent developments in Internet activism. The 2009 Green Revolution in Iran may have failed, but activists in the United States defeated SOPA, a bill that would have imposed significant restrictions on the Internet. Szoka concludes that the Internet helps solve a significant problem in activism: It makes it easier for like-minded people to provide reputational feedback about corporations and governments. Still, we must pay close attention to the fact that governments can and do manipulate the Internet to repress their populations.

Response Essays

• Who is Social Media Really Working For? by Jason Benlevi

  Jason Benlevi argues that digital activism rarely gets the kind of results that real-world activism can. In any conflict, reality usually beats virtuality. Though he is no Luddite — and though has a career record to prove it — Benlevi argues that online activism is often a hostage to the medium that carries it. That medium, in turn, exists in the real world, where it is controlled by corporations and governments. Social media activism is at its strongest when it does what the medium was designed to do — provide consumer feedback on corporate products. It's not so effective at challenging oppressive governments.

• Internet Activism? Let's Look at the Specifics by Rebecca MacKinnon.

  Rebecca MacKinnon urges a close attention to the particularities of time and place. Protest movements are more and more using social media, but they may stand or fall based on other factors. Laws and Internet architectures may vary, rendering the medium more or less conducive to citizen activism. It becomes increasingly important to pay attention to what makes for good or bad Internet law, because the results in this area may prompt virtuous or vicious cycles throughout society.

• Better Policy Through Better Information by John O. McGinnis.

  John O. McGinnis argues that the Internet and associated technologies can and will change the terrain on which policy choices are made. Not only does it become easier for dispersed interests to aggregate, but information technology can also shift the focus of our political culture. Empiricism and evidence will become relatively more important as facts become easier to check; ideology and unsupported intuition will lose a good deal of power. For these reasons, McGinnis is an optimist.

The Conversation

• Conversation to follow May 14

Related at Cato

• Issue Area: Internet Governance and Regulation
• Cato Handbook for Policymakers: Electronic Surveillance (pdf)
• Cato Policy Analysis: Leashing the Surveillance State: How to Reform the Patriot Act Surveillance Authorities by Cato Research Fellow Julian Sanchez
• Capitol Hill Briefing: Cybersecurity: Will Federal Regulation Help? featuring Jim Harper, Director of Information Policy Studies, the Cato Institute.