Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies: How China Wins Online

Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies explores how authoritarian regimes use the Internet to direct the flow of online information, empowering citizens to engage in low-level protest toward local government while avoiding overthrow. The COVID-19 and Xinjiang Cotton cases demonstrate the impact and limitations of China's information strategy.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 184 pages
Publication date: 04 January 2024
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

The Internet has the potential to fundamentally alter the flow of politically relevant information, even in authoritarian regimes. Studies have shown that social media has empowered social actors to challenge authoritarian regimes, but there is less research on whether and how the state can actively shape the flow of information to its advantage. In China, for instance, citizens often resort to rightful resistance to lodge complaints and defend rights, using the rhetoric of the central government to exploit the slim political opportunity structure and negotiate with the state for better governance. However, this tactic also reinforces the legitimacy of authoritarian states, as citizens engage in rightful resistance precisely because they trust the state, at least the central government, to some degree.

Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies explores how authoritarian regimes employ the Internet in advantageous ways to direct the flow of online information. The authors argue that the central Chinese government successfully directs citizen dissent toward local government through critical information that the central government places online, a strategy that the authors call directed digital dissidence. In this context, citizens engage in low-level protest toward the local government, and thereby feel empowered, while the central government avoids overthrow. Consequently, the Internet functions to discipline local state agents and to project a benevolent image of the central government and the regime as a whole.

With an in-depth look at the COVID-19 and Xinjiang Cotton cases, the authors demonstrate how the Chinese state employs the Internet to control the narrative and suppress information, while also using it to project a benevolent image abroad. The book provides valuable insights into the complex dynamics of authoritarian regimes and the role of the Internet in shaping political discourse and behavior.

In conclusion, while there is a fair amount of research exploring how social media has empowered social actors to challenge authoritarian regimes, there is much less addressing whether and how the state can actively shape the flow of information to its advantage. Directed Digital Dissidence in Autocracies provides valuable insights into how authoritarian regimes employ the Internet to direct the flow of online information and control the narrative, while also using it to project a benevolent image abroad. The book highlights the complex dynamics of authoritarian regimes and the role of the Internet in shaping political discourse and behavior.

Weight: 274g
Dimension: 156 x 235 x 14 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780197680391