Political Consequences of the Internet
The Internet has become ubiquitous in global communications, commerce, and industry, and as such it has had widespread political effects. These range from the positive (increased access to educational resources, connecting people across continents, and facilitating commerce) to the negative (social alienation, hacking, and widespread time-wasting) to the downright horrifying (AI-driven surveillance, state sponsored misinformation, the destruction of the social fabric, new forms of warfare, and tech-giants resembling superpowers rather than companies).
In a recent report by the Oxford Internet Institute, it was found that the number of countries with active political disinformation campaigns had increased to 70 in 2019, nearly twice that of 2017. This, coupled with widespread usage of censorship and surveillance in many countries, is a threat to democracy across the world, and a way for autocratic societies to consolidate their power.
Some of the countries found by Oxford to run these campaigns (either permanently or temporarily during elections), include the US, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Poland, Italy, Russia, China, India, Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Egypt, and Ethiopia. These 15 countries have a combined population of around 4.5 billion people, meaning that well over half the human population are being subjected to political disinformation by their governments through the internet.
Sources and other relevant links
- Szoldra, P. (2016) “The US could have destroyed Iran’s entire infrastructure without dropping a single bomb”. Businessinsider.com
- Wong, J.C (2017): “Former Facebook executive: social media is ripping society apart”. Theguardian.com
- Ellis, M (2014) “The Evolution of the Internet and its Impact on Retail Spaces”. Wired.com
- Feldfstein, S (2019) “The Global Expansion of AI Surveillance”.