An incisive look at the next major battlegrounds between the Internet and state control
In Now I Know Who My Comrades Are, Emily Parker, a former State Department policy advisor and former writer at The Wall Street Journal, provides on-the-ground accounts of how the Internet is transforming lives in China, Cuba and Russia.
In China, university students use the Internet to save the life of an attempted murder victim. In Cuba, authorities try to silence an online critic by sowing seeds of distrust in her marriage. And in Russia, a lone blogger rises to become the most prominent opposition figure since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Authoritarian governments try to isolate individuals from one another, but in the age of Twitter and Facebook, this is impossible. Or as one blogger put it: "Now I know who my comrades are." Social media helps people overcome feelings of powerlessness, leading to the rise of a new kind of citizen.
Emily Parker details how prominent dissidents and ordinary citizens use the Internet to expose injustices and challenge authority. Now I Know Who My Comrades Are is a testament to the power of community in the face of repression.