Valuing Social Capital of the Internet

Map of the Internet by The Opte Project

The recent popular uprisings in MENA (Middle East, North Africa) have combined the concern for democracy with the urgent need to ensure Internet freedom. Internet freedom has become an essential part of the narrative of human rights across the globe. Though tools of social media facilitated (if not essentially caused) the pro-democracy protests, the portrayal of new media as a tool for political change is somewhat disturbing. This will lead to renewed emphasis on the ‘instrumental’ approach to Internet freedom while neglecting the ‘environmental’ dimension. Clay Shirky distinguished between the two dimensions of Internet freedom in an article, “The political power of social media,” in Foreign Affairs. The ‘instrumental’ dimension relates to efforts to pressure repressive regimes to open access to online information sources, while the ‘environmental’ aspect focuses on the more traditional theme of opening civil society in general, taking the long view to social and political change. Internet is not simply an instrument to empower the citizen against the government but is an opportunity to contribute to individual and social well-being.

Excitement about Internet as a tool for political revolutions shall adversely impact it’s broader and more positive social role in two ways.

First, governments will more closely monitor interaction in the social media and might resort to censorship at the slightest indication of discontent brewing among citizens. Citizens may be dissatisfied with the state of governance and may express their opinions through online social media tools in ways similar to off-line discussions. The much publicized boomerang effect of social media might push the governments to over-react and curtail internet freedom. Some democracies are already showing signs of lowering thresholds of tolerance for online ‘protests’. For example, India’s democratic government has proposed amendments to the draft Information Technology Rules 2011 which aims to control bloggers through the due diligence clause and seeks to regulate cyber cafes through a license policy and directives to maintain logs of users and of websites accessed by users. Such efforts at censorship may adversely impact non-threatening network building through the Internet in many countries.

Second, capacity building for optimal utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) will receive a set-back given the excessive concern with countering political censorship. A large part of the discussion on Internet freedom in mainstream media reports on website blocking and filtering, content manipulation, attacks on and imprisonment of bloggers. Attempts at encouraging grassroots NGOs to use digital technology for networking, focus on transforming education, fostering local innovation, and enabling jobs and opportunities through media tools are usually under-reported. Initiatives like U.S. State Department’s E-Mediat, Microsoft’s Community Technology Skills program, FrontlineSMS and RootSpace find little mention in discussions on Internet inspired change. These are long-term indigenous capacity building programs that would help communities to use ICT in ways that they desire. The idea is not to fight for Internet freedom from political censorship alone but to cultivate skills where internet is used for social and economic empowerment.

Rather than demanding that repressive regimes to allow free use of Internet (which is wishful thinking) it will be more fruitful to spread information about national cyber laws and platforms like Global Network Initiative and Electronic Frontier Foundation involved in protecting and advancing freedom of expression. According to Sanja Kelly, managing editor at Freedom House, even though the Turkish government had banned Youtube for several months, her cab driver in Istanbul confessed that he and most others in the country had worked out a way to access the site! Internet freedom is not about preparing citizens for political revolutions but about connecting people so that they can interact and act in more meaningful ways.

The ability to witness political change in different parts of the globe in real time is simply one aspect of the Internet’s varied transformative potential. Internet inspired social innovations are making equally revolutionary changes in more incremental ways. Here are few examples to highlight such innovations. Libraries Across Africa (LAA) seeks to empower individuals and communities across Africa by delivering digitally-enhanced multi-use library facilities throughout Africa. By providing cost effective infrastructure and information solutions, communities are empowered to address their own unique economic, educational, social, technological, and business challenges. Committee for Democracy in Information Technology is a non-profit organization promoting social inclusion in Latin American countries by using ICT as a tool for building active citizenship. CDI´s educational methodology is a combination of civic and digital education that seeks to help people help themselves, empowering the communities to understand the challenges they are facing and work together to solve them. ReVoDa Mobile app allowed voters to report as independent citizen observers from their respective polling units across Nigeria earlier this year. There are innumerable such examples where communities are engineering change through use of digital technology. While political protestors using digital technology have emerged as the movers and shakers during the past months, it is necessary to turn the spotlight on the silent crusaders of socio-economic change struggling to attune technology to local needs.

There is an urgent need to stop publicizing Internet as tool for effecting regime change and reiterate its role as a medium for facilitating indigenous social and economic transformations. Phrases like ‘Twitter or Facebook revolutions’ tend to weaponize social media tools in negative ways and under-emphasize its over-all communicative and networking worth.  It’s time to assert the social capital of the Internet along with its technical capital.