Does the Internet bring greater freedom and democracy to the PRC? essay part 2
Does the Internet bring greater freedom and democracy to the PRC? essay part 1
SECTION 2. Studies of Internet freedom and democracy
2.1. Interconnection of information technology democracy. The positive aspect
The achievements in information technology and the development of democracy are of great interest for contemporary researchers and politics. The main task that confronts those who seek to establish this relationship is to find an answer to the question: “Does the information technology promote the development of democracy?” There are scientists, whose answer is positive. Many researchers tend to believe that democracy and information technology work closely together and add each other. Arguments about the development of information technology and democracy are considered from three positions. The link between advances in information technology (IT) and the development of democracy has become an increasingly important research agenda among scholars and policy makers. Most studies are based on developed Western democracies, and their main concern is whether IT is capable of promoting and improving the functioning of the existing democracies. Optimistic scholars have argued that a positive link exists between IT and democratic improvement (Zheng & Wu, 2005). First theory is the modernization theory, which prevailed in 1950-1960-s, when the Internet was just appearing. At this time, democracy needs a certain economics, sociology; information preconditions get their development through economic growth, industrialization, urbanization and education. Robert Dahl (1971) examines the development and spread of information technology as a useful, and an efficient process in the way of providing the guarantees of democracy (Zheng & Wu, 2005). In a second aspect, some scholars have focused on communication and social – political sphere and information technology, explaining that information technology is a powerful stimulant for the development of civil society and the public sphere. And according to the third position, information technologies give citizens access to political resources, thereby increasing their political participation in a democratic environment (Zheng & Wu, 2005).
2.2. Internet and democracy – the negative aspect of the influence
In the case of an authoritarian China, scientists have discovered that the Internet can be positioned as an insurmountable threat to the authoritarian regime of the country. Such a threat is possible through the Internet in civil society (Zheng & Wu, 2005). At the same time, some researchers, such as Lawrence Lessig (1999), are quite pessimistic about the impact of the Internet on democracy. In particular, Lawrence Lessig argues that the fact that the government can definitely control the Internet, controlling its source code and creating a legal environment does not mean anything good. It is believed that politically decentralizing capacities of IT can be overcome by traditional organizational interests, and traditional media firms are succeeding in colonizing new IT (Zheng & Wu, 2005).
Various human rights organizations of the Western European countries are against the Internet censorship in China. For example, the situation in 2005: an association “Reporters without Borders” blamed the owners of Internet portal Yahoo! that they have allowed the Chinese authorities to trace the way of letters, which the journalist Shi Tao sent from the mailbox hosted on this portal. In 2006, the Committee of Journalists Protection and the “Reporters without Borders” again accused corporation Yahoo! for providing data to the Chinese authorities. In that case, it was the employee of the city administration Dazhou Li Zhi, who was sentenced to prison for eight years for having repeatedly stated his political views on public sites and talked with dissidents by email. In May 2011, the Human Rights Law Foundation filed suit to the District Court for the Northern District of California, in which it accused a major American manufacturer of networking equipment – Cisco System Company in promoting the “Golden Shield.” Also, the representatives of Cisco filed suit called “totally unfounded” and assured that the company has never been involved in the creation of such solutions for the Chinese government and their support. In May 2011, the U.S. State Department has decided to allocate funds for the development of new technologies that would circumvent Internet censorship in China. The new technology will track the material to which access is prohibited, and will purposefully convey them to the public on their own.
Conclusion
In China, the Internet is a free zone only in theory, but in reality people have a variety of duties and have to reckon with the restrictions imposed on the use of web controlling bodies. Opinions of experts in assessing the usefulness of existing systems differ: some say that Internet censorship on a national scale is unacceptable; others point out that the traditions of china differ from Western, and most Chinese do not see in these prohibitions anything strange and abnormal. I believe that the Internet should be open and free, but at the same time I can not disagree with the fact that we need to put into consideration the culture of the people, and if necessary, adjust the work of local sites in accordance with the laws, regulations and constraints in the country where they are.
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