A Conference on Cyber Dissidents: Global Successes and Challenges

Freedom House has identified a worrisome, multi-year decline in global freedom that is contradicting many of the assumptions about the direction human freedom would take. As democratic freedoms, including those of traditional media and the press, have come under growing pressure, the Internet and other new media technologies are increasingly viewed as the principal alternatives and challenges to media hegemony, especially in repressive countries.

But authoritarian governments such as those in China, Iran and Russia are pursuing media and information strategies that are increasingly sophisticated and in many ways suited to the 21st century. China, for example, has been at the forefront of a growing trend toward “outsourcing” censorship and surveillance to private companies – ISPs, cybercafes, and mobile phone providers. These governments, which are at the forefront of an effort that could be called Authoritarianism 2.0, have played a central role in the global regression of media freedom.

Freedom House, which is dedicated to supporting free institutions and democratic values, will offer an analysis of the key features and trends in global Internet freedom and describe how it assists front-line activists in their home countries.

Featuring:

• Robert Guerra
  Project Director, Internet Freedom, Freedom House
• Christopher Walker
  Director of Studies, Freedom House

Can “circumvention technology” help overcome online censorship in repressive countries? Dozens of countries filter the Internet or use other forms of controlling online activity in order to censor and discourage a free exchange of ideas and political views. Many tools allow users to get around Internet filtering, but these tools are only used by a very small portion of users. An added challenge is that circumvention tools are costly to implement, can put user data at risk and invite abuse.

While circumvention tools do real good, they are limited as a means to counter Internet censorship on a wide scale. To address Internet censorship systematically, we need to address not just network filtering but also control over the Internet Service Providers, websites and other information platforms that host content and allow individuals to share it. And we have to think about issues of control and censorship not just within countries that practice censorship, but in the core Internet companies in our own country like Google and Facebook that host an increasingly predominant amount of content for users in these filtered countries.

Featuring:

• Hal Roberts
  Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
• Ethan Zuckerman
  Senior Researcher, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

The Internet and Wi-Fi connectivity have been an incredible boon to freedom advocates the world over. Through the various online and digital tools of information sharing, voices are raised against tyranny and oppression, and protest is made possible where it might otherwise be silenced. A panel of leading online freedom advocates from some of the most repressive countries in the world will describe the situation in their native lands and help us better understand how to best assist their efforts.

Moderator

• Stephen J. Hadley
  Senior Advisor for International Affairs, U.S. Institute of Peace
  Former National Security Advisor to President Bush

Panelists

• Ahed Al Hendi
  Syria
• Rodrigo Diamanti
  Venezuela
• Ernesto Hernández Busto
  Cuba
• Arash Kamangir
  Iran
• Oleg Kozlovsky
  Russia
• Isaac Mao
  China

Dr. Jeffrey Gedmin has served as President and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty since March 2007. From 2001 to 2006 he served as director of the Aspen Institute Berlin. Before that, he was a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and executive director of the New Atlantic Initiative. Gedmin has been a frequent contributor to leading U.S. and European newspapers and magazines and is author and editor of several books on European issues and American foreign policy. He was executive editor of the PBS documentary The Germans; Portrait of a New Nation and co-executive producer of the PBS film Europe’s 9/11.

The mode of online freedom advocacy often differs from country to country, as cyber dissidents rely on different technologies and information platforms to engage in their work. Some publish blogs, others rely on Facebook, still others use Twitter feeds, YouTube and cell phones to get their messages out. How can cyber dissidents from different nations and different circumstances learn from each other? What do they share in common and what are the obstacles to their success and the keys to overcoming them? Two separate panels of cyber dissidents, online freedom experts and George W. Bush Institute visiting fellows will compare and contrast the lessons of the global online freedom movement across countries and technologies.

Moderator

• James K. Glassman
  Executive Director, George W. Bush Institute

Panelists

• Ahed Al Hendi
  Syria
• Rodrigo Diamanti
  Venezuela
• Oleg Kozlovsky
  Russia
• Hal Roberts
  Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University
• Mohsen Sazegara
  Visiting Fellow, George W. Bush Institute
  Iran
• Ethan Zuckerman
  Senior Researcher, Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

The mode of online freedom advocacy often differs from country to country, as cyber dissidents rely on different technologies and information platforms to engage in their work. Some publish blogs, others rely on Facebook, still others use Twitter feeds, YouTube and cell phones to get their messages out. How can cyber dissidents from different nations and different circumstances learn from each other? What do they share in common and what are the obstacles to their success and the keys to overcoming them? Two separate panels of cyber dissidents, online freedom experts and George W. Bush Institute visiting fellows will compare and contrast the lessons of the global online freedom movement across countries and technologies.

Moderator

• Goli Ameri
  Board Member, Freedom House
  Former Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Panelists

• Robert Guerra
  Project Director, Internet Freedom, Freedom House
• Ernesto Hernández Busto
  Cuba
• Arash Kamangir
  Iran
• Isaac Mao
  China
• Oscar Morales Guevara
  Visiting Fellow, George W. Bush Institute
• Christopher Walker
  Director of Studies, Freedom House

The growth of the internet has created a new battleground in the struggle for political freedom — pitting online dissidents against regimes that use technology to suppress free expression. Many of the challenges facing Cyberdissidents, however, are the same as those faced by earlier generations of dissidents: how to effectively organize, communicate, and challenge regime legitimacy in the face of threats of intimidation, violence, and even death.

What can today’s online dissidents learn from the experiences of prodemocracy activists like Natan Sharansky, Vaclav Havel, and Aung San Suu Kyi? In the long struggle for freedom across the globe, what factors have made a difference? The panel will help put the efforts of cyberdissidents in historic context and discuss the broader lessons we can draw from the experiences of freedom movements worldwide.

The panel will also discuss steps the United States can take to support online dissidents. How can the United States government and the American public best offer material and moral support to prodemocracy movements and lend our voices to their noble struggle?

Moderator

• Kristen Silverberg
  Former United States Ambassador to the European Union

Panelists

• Peter Ackerman
  Founding Chair, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
• Daniel Baer
  Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, U.S. Department of State
• David Keyes
  Executive Director, Cyberdissidents.org

Closing Remarks

• James K. Glassman
  Executive Director, George W. Bush Institute