Evgeny Morozov Animated: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

RSA has released its latest animated video, and this time it features Evgeny Morozov, the Belarus-born researcher, who takes the contrarian position that the internet can often inhibit (rather than promote) democracy, especially within authoritarian contexts like China and Iran. And what follows (above) is a more sobering talk about how authoritarian regimes use the web to suppress civic engagement and fledgling democracy movements. This clip is part of a longer 27 minute lecture (see full version here) that peers into “the dark side of internet freedom,” a phrase that happens to be the subtitle of Morozov’s new book.

Morozov is currently a visiting scholar in the Liberation Technology Program at Stanford, and if you’re wondering how he looks at technology and the role it played in Egypt’s revolution, you can watch a quick clip here.