(This originally appeared as “Singapore Doesn’t Always Need Internet Censorship to Silence Critics” on TechPresident. Redux + additional links on Freedom to Tinker.) Singapore likes to promote itself as a business-friendly country where the government has a soft touch. But by firing a professor known for criticizing the government’s censorship strategies, [...]
![By Oscar Buhl (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://philhoward.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Counting_the_votes_-_Georgian_Parliamentary_Elections_2012-260x260.jpg)
(This post originally appeared as “How Obama’s Foreign Policy Can Be Savvier about Tech and Democratization” on TechPresident.) The last four years have seen demonstrated dividends for democracy from investments made by the Obama administration. Forging a new foreign policy approach that fosters openness for governments and technology support for [...]
(This appeared as an OpEd entitled “The Real Success in the Tunisian Elections is an Autthentic, Democratic Process” in the Seattle Times. TUNISIA, a country that had never experienced democracy, held a successful election last week. This was the first election of the Arab Spring, and the first in an [...]
Howard, Philip N. and Muzammil Hussain. “Digital Media and the Arab Spring.” Journal of Democracy 22, no. 3 (2011): 35-48. During the “Arab Spring,” young tech savvy activists led uprisings in a dozen countries across North Africa and the Middle East. At first, digital media allowed democratization movements to develop [...]
Around the developing world, political leaders face a dilemma: the very information and communication technologies that boost economic fortunes also undermine power structures. Globally, one in ten internet users is a Muslim living in a populous Muslim community. In these countries, young people are developing their political identities—including a transnational [...]
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