This series features James F. Hoge, Jr., counselor at the Council on Foreign Relations, chairman of Human Rights Watch, and CGA advisory board member, in conversation with leading journalists and authors. Books are available for sale.

 

Evgeny Morozov—
The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom

Tuesday, February 1, 6.30–7.45 p.m.

“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, 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.

Journalist and social commentator Evgeny Morozov argues that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, we may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder—not easier—to promote democracy.