Graduation Year
2021
Date of Submission
5-2021
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Award
Mgrublian Center for Human Rights Best Thesis – Human Rights
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
International Relations
Reader 1
Hilary Appel
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2021 Jaelin J Kinney
Abstract
The Internet and social media are being corrupted into authoritarian tools by autocrats and regimes, providing them with new ways to wield power, expand sociopolitical influence, undermine civil liberties, and repress the public. This weaponization, known as digital authoritarianism, is dismantling democracy and civil liberty throughout the world. Regimes have turned to China’s censorship system as a blueprint for establishing digital authoritarianism. The cases of China, Venezuela, and Syria all show that digital authoritarianism is built upon censorship laws, regime media institutions, and Internet control. But the latter two cases illustrate that social media weaponization differentiates China’s censorship from their digital authoritarianism. The regimes of Venezuela and Syria are using social media to spread misinformation and track dissident citizens and opponents. Venezuela alludes to a possible outcome of unchecked digital authoritarianism, while Syria offers a possible solution for countering it. Domestic and international netizens can use it to promulgate the “CNN Effect.” This effect can expand domestic wars and crises into the international sociopolitical sphere, encouraging intervention and global unity against a regime’s actions.
Recommended Citation
Kinney, Jaelin, "The Cyber Age of Authoritarianism" (2021). CMC Senior Theses. 2676.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2676
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
