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Topic: Internet and Democracy (Read 22503 times) |
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DavidMuic
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Internet and Democracy
« on: Jan 12th, 2012, 6:51am » |
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I need opinions here.
Does the internet contribute to more freedom and democracy?
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towr
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #1 on: Jan 12th, 2012, 8:23am » |
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On the one hand, it's a way for people to voice their opinion and rally together, on the other hand it can be a tool for governments to control it's people.
The internet is a tool, whether it contributes to freedom and democracy or not depends on how it is used.
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Grimbal
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #2 on: Jan 12th, 2012, 9:05am » |
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It seems to me that up to now the Internet has been a great boost for democracy by just helping to spread information to everybody.
But it seems to me that a few companies are gaining access to way too much information about individual people and makes me fear we are going in the direction of a small circle of companies that rules the rest of the world.
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DavidMuic
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #3 on: Jan 12th, 2012, 8:28pm » |
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So how is it that China could suppress their people through internet censoring while the Middle East couldn't?
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towr
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #4 on: Jan 12th, 2012, 10:20pm » |
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I think that's the wrong question, because the context is different. Life is getting worse for the people in the middle east with food prices soaring and a bad economy, while for the Chinese life is getting better. Another difference is the demographic. China has an aging population with a median age of 35.5, while in the middle-east most people are young: in Egypt the median age is 24.3.
If push came to shove, I'm not so sure Chinese internet censoring would be able to suppress its people; even shutting down the internet entirely didn't help the regimes in the middle eastern countries. But the Chinese have little reason to revolt, they only have to wait and things get better, so why rock the boat?
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DavidMuic
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #5 on: Jan 12th, 2012, 11:54pm » |
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So let's say we forget the internet for one second.
Whether or not the people have the right to vote or express, is less important than their well being. This is what I could conclude from the China example, that's also why some countries in the Middle East with authoritarian rulers are having no problems while some do, based on their distribution of wealth(mainly from oil export) ?
(Im doing this thesis about democracy and really appreciate all the support and opinions)
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towr
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #6 on: Jan 13th, 2012, 8:40am » |
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I wouldn't necessarily say that their right to vote or voice their opinion is less important than their well-being ( I'd say it is part of what makes up their well-being). But people are less inclined to take to the street and protest -- and risk the ire of the authorities -- if the stakes aren't very high. If you can't afford food, or can't afford to start a family, the stakes are pretty high; it's your day-to-day life that's affected. If you can't vote, well, how often do you vote? Sure, it affects your life, but you don't notice it that much -- unless there's something that really, desperately needs to change and you notice that nobody's listening to you.
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rmsgrey
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #7 on: Jan 13th, 2012, 5:58pm » |
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In general, democracies are better places to live than non-democracies, but that's like saying that, in general, men are stronger than women. In individual cases, a given woman can be stronger than a given man, and a given non-democracy can be a better place to live than a given democracy.
The great weakness of democracy is that it relies on the basic assumption that everyone's opinion (unless they're insane or under a certain age or meet any of various other criteria that have been used over the millennia) is equally valid - or in representative democracy, that everyone's judgement of who should be making decisions is equally valid.
One obvious failure mode for democratic societies is "bread and circuses" - a sufficient proportion of the population realises that they can vote for expanded welfare and better entertainments and stop worrying about the long-term consequences...
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tradingpostmotel
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #8 on: Jan 14th, 2012, 1:47pm » |
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The internet is good for democracy because it lets others learn new things about other countries. Their religion, culture and political views.
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Questionnaire
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #9 on: Jan 31st, 2012, 1:15pm » |
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In Holland we already have an official account to do our bureaucratic tasks like filling in taxforms over the Internet. For the bureaucratics of a government, at least, the Internet has been very usefull.
I believe that the Internet could be used to fix some of the governing problems democracies have to cope with.
Having an election is difficult and costly, which is a reason why major democracies were unable to use a referendum-based government until now.
By this I mean a democracy that votes not only on leaders, but on issues.
Using the Internet to vote would:
-decrease the costs of voting drastically
-enable campaigns based on ideas not supported by the rich and powerfull
-enable us to have elections more often, and in that way give our governments the feedback from the people they (should) need.
-raise the number of people who actually vote (very low in my country, even lower in the USA)
Of course there are downsides as well, namely security and privacy issues. Also there is the question if you really want a referendum-based democracy, but that is getting too opinionlike to me.
Governments can use the Internet as a tool to access the people, manipulate them or to spy on them. But either way the power of the Internet is not te be underestimated.
Just my two cents,
W
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ashutoshets
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #10 on: Feb 21st, 2012, 8:21pm » |
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Yes Internet give more freedom to express you view .
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prashant
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #11 on: Feb 21st, 2012, 11:54pm » |
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on Jan 12th, 2012, 6:51am, DavidMuic wrote:I need opinions here.
Does the internet contribute to more freedom and democracy? |
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yes,it does.
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alexdrid25
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #12 on: Feb 23rd, 2012, 10:25pm » |
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Internet is a powerful medium that gives freedom to people all over the globe. And this forum site is such a great example to take on 
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alisdiar
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #13 on: Jul 9th, 2012, 1:30am » |
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Yes the Internet contribute more freedom. it helps us for know anything in the world. It provide many things which we want to use or learn from everywhere.
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Ela
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #14 on: Jul 18th, 2012, 11:40pm » |
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Of course the Internet give you the capabilities and platform to speak up in 60% of the world and it already started a rebels movements in many nations which never had the freedom of speech which you take for so granted.
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srijth110
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #15 on: Oct 4th, 2012, 2:42am » |
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Yes through internet only we can tell the problems which are occuring in the democracy
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MathsForFun
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #16 on: Oct 31st, 2012, 2:16pm » |
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on Jan 12th, 2012, 6:51am, DavidMuic wrote:| Does the internet contribute to more freedom and democracy? |
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The printing press is said to have contributed greatly to democracy - and the internet is an order of magnitude more powerful than the printing press.
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Grimbal
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #17 on: Nov 1st, 2012, 9:32am » |
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I wonder.
I heard in the news about the US elections, that there are action groups that do "microtargetting" to help the one or the other candidate.
The idea is that people who want to favour one candidate can download a list of neighbours who haven't registererd for voting. For each neighbour is a profile that gives the neighbours interests and the points in the candidate's program that is more likely to make him/her decide to vote for the candidate.
These profiles were purchased from a private data collecting agency.
So the internet helps those who can buy the data to give a very biased view of their candidate to push peoples votes the way they like.
OK, in my opinion the internet is still helping democracy by spreading knowledge, but there are also dangers.
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paulstrahann
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #18 on: Jan 27th, 2013, 9:03pm » |
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No doubt on that Internet is the big reason for democracy and also for some independence as well. Now, we can collect information through the Internet and sharing options are too. It's helpful to spread democracy as well. So, I also feel that Internet is truly great for democracy and internet.
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jemyclarke
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #19 on: Feb 11th, 2013, 3:54am » |
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Governments world-wide are starting more and more to use the internet and state of the art technologies in order to control the life of individuals. The use of the internet to make money has created a democratic revolution of money making opportunities across the world.
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new_world
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #20 on: Mar 20th, 2013, 1:31pm » |
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I think it does. It's much harder to ban/censor the Internet than some local newspaper. Of course it's not impossible for countries to block specific websites from their population, but people always find ways to bypass this limitation.
So, I strongly believe the Internet contributes for freedom and democracy, since it's the easiest way for someone to express their opinions.
Here are two politicians quotes about this:
“Both the American people and nations that censor the internet should understand that our government is committed to helping promote internet freedom.”
(Hillary Clinton)
“I am in favor of complete freedom of information and of free access to the new communication tools, in particular the Internet.”
(Omar Bongo)
Source: Lib Quotes
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| « Last Edit: Mar 31st, 2017, 9:59am by new_world » |
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Mariko79
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #21 on: Apr 2nd, 2013, 12:34pm » |
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I think that the answer is YES, because the libetry of expression have biger limits than other mass media
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venkatsha
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #22 on: May 9th, 2013, 5:44am » |
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What about SOPA and PIPA things. Does those bills were passed?
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arshkapoor
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #23 on: Aug 21st, 2013, 12:27pm » |
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internet is the best way to gain information and best way to come up with your opinion to the world. I share my words at my blog and i learn the freedom to say what ever i want and without any limitations
// removed link to commercial blog.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 21st, 2013, 12:35pm by towr » |
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pandani
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Re: Internet and Democracy
« Reply #24 on: Oct 27th, 2013, 4:28pm » |
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What is democracy and freedom? We are not fully have them. Everything is still under control either democracy and freedom.
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