Can the internet fundamentally challenge a non-free state such as Russia? The role of social networking in political change in the Middle East and beyond raises important questions about the ability of authoritarian leaders to control the information sphere as well as their subjects. This book goes beyond the idea of “virtual” politics to study five key components in the relationship between the online sphere and society: content, community, catalysts, control, and co-optation. Including an analysis of the internet-linked protests in the winter of 2011–12, this book posits that there are criti ... More

Can the internet fundamentally challenge a non-free state such as Russia? The role of social networking in political change in the Middle East and beyond raises important questions about the ability of authoritarian leaders to control the information sphere as well as their subjects. This book goes beyond the idea of “virtual” politics to study five key components in the relationship between the online sphere and society: content, community, catalysts, control, and co-optation. Including an analysis of the internet-linked protests in the winter of 2011–12, this book posits that there are critical preconditions that help the internet to challenge non-free states. Russia experienced explosive growth in the online audience, tipping the balance of control away from state-run television and toward the more open online sphere. Russian leaders became vulnerable to online protest movements and online social entrepreneurs by their failure to control the internet as effectively as they controlled traditional media. In addition, studies of small-scale protests involving health issues and children with disabilities provide compelling evidence that Russians were beginning to translate individual grievances into rising political awareness and efficacy via the online sphere prior to the protests in 2011–12. New types of information dissemination, networking, and protest transformed a state strategy of co-opted elections into a powerful catalyst for protest and demands for rights. While the revolution remains stalled, a new and evolving generation of internet users is showing compelling signs of transforming the public sphere in Russia.