Tweet
Katy Pearce: Azerbaijani authorities use social media to suppress dissent
18:38 04/02/2014 >> REGION
In Azerbaijan the opposition as well as the government uses social
media to have an influence on the society of the country. Social media
provides the regime with an alternative medium to harass the
opposition and demonstrate its power. Katy Pearce, an Associate
Professor at the University of Washington specialized on technology
and media of former Soviet space wrote about this in her article
published in quarterly American journal dedicated
to studying of political processes in the post-Soviet space.
"The traditional opposition parties do not leverage all affordances of
it; however oppositionists not affiliated with traditional parties are
leveraging social media to build audiences. While the regime is
currently "winning" the social media battle, oppositionists are using
the new and creative ways to unite people around them," the author
states.
According to her, the Azerbaijani authorities have a unique way of
regulating the Internet: instead of using high-level filtering, they
use psychological techniques to create an environment of
self-censorship. The government also monitors and punishes social
media-enabled dissent.
"In Azerbaijan, the government has nearly total control of the
mainstream media. Accordingly, in the last few years, many
oppositionally-minded Azerbaijanis have turned to the Internet to
express their political views. With the growth of social media,
especially Facebook (between 13-18 percent of Azerbaijanis had a
Facebook account as of late 2013), this sort of political deliberation
has increased. As the openness of the Internet became an attractive
space for activists, the Azerbaijani government seemingly took notice
and began formulating a policy to control it," the article reads.
As it is stated in the article, social networks are also used for the
organization of various protest actions. Since early 2013, there has
been a number of protest actions organized primarily via Facebook
without any sponsorship from any of the traditional opposition
parties.
"Facebook is a particular threat to the Azerbaijani government. After
an increase in Facebook activism in early 2013, some pro-government
Azerbaijani politicians made statements about limiting or blocking
Facebook. "These networks create a threat to Azerbaijan's statehood"
Fazail Agamali, leader of the pro-government party Motherland said,"
Pearce writes.
According to her, Facebook was not blocked; however that was not the
last mention of Facebook as threat during the year.
Source: Panorama.am
18:38 04/02/2014 >> REGION
In Azerbaijan the opposition as well as the government uses social
media to have an influence on the society of the country. Social media
provides the regime with an alternative medium to harass the
opposition and demonstrate its power. Katy Pearce, an Associate
Professor at the University of Washington specialized on technology
and media of former Soviet space wrote about this in her article
published in quarterly American journal dedicated
to studying of political processes in the post-Soviet space.
"The traditional opposition parties do not leverage all affordances of
it; however oppositionists not affiliated with traditional parties are
leveraging social media to build audiences. While the regime is
currently "winning" the social media battle, oppositionists are using
the new and creative ways to unite people around them," the author
states.
According to her, the Azerbaijani authorities have a unique way of
regulating the Internet: instead of using high-level filtering, they
use psychological techniques to create an environment of
self-censorship. The government also monitors and punishes social
media-enabled dissent.
"In Azerbaijan, the government has nearly total control of the
mainstream media. Accordingly, in the last few years, many
oppositionally-minded Azerbaijanis have turned to the Internet to
express their political views. With the growth of social media,
especially Facebook (between 13-18 percent of Azerbaijanis had a
Facebook account as of late 2013), this sort of political deliberation
has increased. As the openness of the Internet became an attractive
space for activists, the Azerbaijani government seemingly took notice
and began formulating a policy to control it," the article reads.
As it is stated in the article, social networks are also used for the
organization of various protest actions. Since early 2013, there has
been a number of protest actions organized primarily via Facebook
without any sponsorship from any of the traditional opposition
parties.
"Facebook is a particular threat to the Azerbaijani government. After
an increase in Facebook activism in early 2013, some pro-government
Azerbaijani politicians made statements about limiting or blocking
Facebook. "These networks create a threat to Azerbaijan's statehood"
Fazail Agamali, leader of the pro-government party Motherland said,"
Pearce writes.
According to her, Facebook was not blocked; however that was not the
last mention of Facebook as threat during the year.
Source: Panorama.am