The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

Evgeny Morozov's The Net Delusion, all at once, is an ambitious attempt to:* define the landscape of philosophical and pragmatic delusions about the net;* examine its impact on democratic-driven rebellion against authoritarian regimes;* and suggest that the net might yield more effective results if policy makers and those using the net as a tool for social change consider the geographic/economic/social context around the net and place less emphasis on the technology as a universal tool that has the same effect regardless of environment.Whew.It's a lot to cram between two covers, especially given that many of the events that Morozov describes are unfolding.But it is well worth the read, especially for those who wish to pierce the veil of boosterism still surrounding the net and technology industry and better understand how the net can be improved, how mobile technologies are advancing use of the net, and seek inspiration for thought about realistic assessments of the net's future. Disclosure: by profession I am an IT industry analyst.Morozov divides netniks into two groups: utopians, and centrists. In Morozov's eyes, "Cyber-utopians set out to build a new and improved United Nations, only to end up with a digital Cirque du Soleil." The centrists, on the other hand, are more focused on how the net should be used to achieve goals - such as overthrowing repressive regimes. The methodologies of both camps are flawed, according to Morozov.For starters, the net is considerably more limited in its capabilities than many suppose. Mobile technology is good for getting people out in the street, even for fund raising, but without organizing processes around the use of information technology (IT), the net itself does not organize people. And those processes need to be in place and take account of a geography's economics/social/historical context if the net is to be an effective tool. But there's more. Because the net potentially accelerates events, misuse - wrongly timed transmissions, say - can work against effective organization of people - sparking an action before the time is ripe. Think Iran's green revolution.The Arab Spring came after publication of The Net Delusion, but events in Cairo especially lend credence to Morozov's analysis. And, there's no proof better than the eating of the pudding.Ironically, authoritarian regimes are probably better at understanding how to use the net to strengthen the power over the people they govern, according to Morozoz. The research to corroborate this claim made me sit up in my seat. He also points out that the populations in the authoritarian states are not necessarily yearning to be free. They're after information that will help them put a roof over the head, food on the table, and achieve desired happiness."The age of new media with its characteristic fragmentation of public discourse and decentralization of control has made the lives of propaganda officials toiling in stuffy offices of authoritarian governments considerably easier," Morozov writes. Use of the net has also eased tracking dissidents by security bodies, once again the net works against those yearning for democratic freedoms.There are problems with Morozov's book, as to be expected given the sprawling scope and that he's trying to nail a poached egg to a post. Some of the problems could have been avoided if he'd had a better editor, though. For instance, early on he questions claims that Twitter played a major role in Iran's Green revolution, pointing out the salient fact that there were 60 total active accounts in Tehran when the uprising started, yet later in the book offers up an analysis based on extensive use of Twitter during events in Tehran. That and several other conflicts - in parts of the book he seems to base his arguments on the presumption that information technologies are a threat to authoritarians and in other parts discounts that analysis - need to be better integrated into a text that is less in conflict with itself.And, as usual, this book could have been, and should have been shorter. There is material in the back - add on stuff - that a could editor would have told Morozov to incorporate in his next book, in the hopes he'd forget about it. Such cuts and edits would also address repetitiveness.If a reader is looking for one book to describe the net, its potential, its effects, its future, this is not the book. But then, that book doesn't exist, to my knowledge. However, this is a good book to have on the IT shelf in the library of any reader who is seriously interested in understanding the net.

A favorite subject of my reading is modern technology and how it is rapidly changing everything about human society. Not least among our tech products is the net in the book title. There is much about contemporary technology tending to delude us with views of a future more optimistic than may be warranted. Contrariwise it is clear is the net is not 'the' solution so much as a very complex tool for human interaction. I hope that is not entirely true because I can know, in detail, how it affects my life and how I am planning on such help in future. Nonetheless in the long term technologists seem unwilling to consider all effects and affects of tech. (My first encounter with 'webs' was the 1950's. At that time experience was with 'webs' created for, and restricted to specific objectives (i.e. SAGE and Arpanet both rudimentary webs by comparison). Nothing better illustrates absence of tech forethought than intensity with which we use and are seduced by web convenience. Now a very general tool. Morozov brilliantly looks at both sides of web use - the productive and the destructive as well as a source of pointless distraction, maybe its worse feature. So far we have clearly learned how it can put all of us in touch with each other for all benefits that provides. But this positive has disadvantages Morosov discusses in detail. For example, that the web enabled popular criticism of Iran government policy also created a government tool for tracking sources of criticism to be dealt with severely, and apparently was. Making everyone's thoughts and personal data readily available leaves each of us open to contact without our consent let alone easily personally devastating. Personal security is a largest loss coming with web tech through social media. There is no security of personal identity information if a 'keylogger' happens to be lurking in web space awaiting a chance to be mischievous or malicious. Potential magnitude of impact from this sort of use is extremely large. Everyone has read about how MILLIONS of credit cards, with their personal information, have been stolen from Target, Home Depot, etc. Petty web theft? Morozov makes the point we should not, as we are, correct tech problems with more tech. Solutions used to government censorship are to create a tech correction circumventing it. The author uses North Korea as an example. In this case the solution chosen was to circumvent that government's attacks through the WWW without pursuing diplomatic or political leverage, i.e. tendency to use tech instead of human interaction. Using the web we may find interest or pleasure in having hundreds, in some cases millions, on our Twitter or Facebook account without the burden of knowing them 'personally'. This book makes a nice complementary use with his second book published in 2013 - "To Save Everything Click Here". The amount of detail in these two books beggars a summary. They were a surprise to me since the author is an accomplished communicator through writing but no so much through speaking.

I got bored with this book and gave up after a few chapters.It has good objectives, the overall thrust is fine, but in the end it goes round and round in circles.

Good book, interesting subject, most enjoyable.

This book deserves its 'must read' status amongst Internet governance scholars and policy makers. In The Internet Delusion, Morozov argues that we have to recognize and reject Internet-centrist and utopian approaches to Internet policy. Whereas 'net-utopianism argues for what should be done, centralists argue that problems should be framed through the lens of the Internet rather than according to the specific question or problem at hand. Both centrist and utopian approaches, Morozov argues, should be rejected because they handicap thinking about Internet policies. Instead, a realist approach should be adopted. Throughout the text we read about the consequences of centrist-thinking: the implications the U.S. State Department faces from influencing American Web 2.0 companies; problems associated with unthinking policy choices concerning freedom of speech and Internet access; logical shortfalls of applying Cold War language to web censorship; the dangers of ignoring long lasting political advocacy groups that lack web savvy. Critically, he rejects a neutralist position concerning Internet services and insists that all networks require ethical investigation and critical evaluation to uncover the services' negative applications. Morozov is a welcome, highly critical, participant in the governance debate and a must read for anyone interested in critiques of contemporary American Internet-related policy making.

The basic premise is that the Internet does not on it's own bring democracy and that current claims are overblown. Added to that we must not delude ourselves that undemocratic states will be using surveillance to spy on dissident Internet activity.This is a good counter-balance to the political rhetoric and a major contribution to the wider net debate.

Despite its length, this book offers an entertaining read, introducing much more topics than I would have expected of the subject web and politics:- illusionary expectations and explanations without real clues how to deal with the new possibilites- transfer of old communication metaphors on new media that might lead to erroneous decisions- political education vs entertainment that rather sidetracks citicens of totalitarian states- censorship & control- propaganda through the new media- observation of citicens' online behaviour- online activism instead of real help- treatment of freedom of mind in the US vs expectations from foreign (less developed) countries- development of communication channels in the pastThe author manages to convey lots of knowledge of theory and practice at the moment and in the past.One point of criticism refers to the chapter headings that sound nice but do not give a clue on what to expect.