Editor’s Note: The Hi-Tech page features columns, news briefs and analytical reporting aimed at informing consumers about the latest advances in hi-tech gadgets, telecommunications and appliances. To be an advertising partner, contact [email protected]. In a year that has seen protests against authoritarian leaders from Cairo to Moscow, the Internet and smartphones are emerging as a potential game changer.
Citizen activists in Russia caught alleged election violations on their phones and posted them to video websites such as YouTube.
Even state television couldn’t continue its usual practice of ignoring opposition protests because coverage was broadcast over the Internet, with activists using tablets and smartphones to shoot video as well as communicate with each other.
With the dominance of pro-government media in Ukraine and the number of protests against government policy rising in recent months, analysts said new technologies could play a crucial role in sharing different views.
“The Internet has destroyed the government’s and oligarchs’ monopoly of information,” said Oleksandr Danylyuk, a pro-democracy and small business rights activist who heads the Spilna Sprava (Common Cause) organization.
Danylyuk said the biggest influence and advantage of communication technologies on modern revolutions is the opportunity to present an alternative view when the media is controlled by the government.
The number of Internet users in Ukraine tripled from about five million in 2006 to more than 15 million in 2010, according to Internet World Stats.
GfK Ukraine, a market research firm, said use of social networking websites such as Facebook increased almost six times in the last three years.
In the seven years since the Orange Revolution, the influence of social media has increased, said Danylyuk, who uses blogs to raise awareness of how government, in his view, tramples on democracy and the rights of small businesses. “Even in 2004 the level of information that the society had was much lower,” he added.
Political analyst and pro-democracy activist Dmytro Potekhin said communication technologies can act as a catalyst for revolutions, but do not drive them. “Revolutions happened before mobile phones appeared. They happen much faster now, but they are not necessarily more effective,” he said.
But there is a flip side to technological progress. Potekhin said new technologies could, in theory, discourage people from taking to the streets and joining protests.
“I’m not sure the Orange Revolution would have happened the way it did if we had Facebook, Twitter and so on at that time. It’s possible that everybody would just use Facebook and ‘like’ what was happening, but it’s questionable if they would come out themselves,” he added.
However, Internet use can also work in favor of the authorities, allowing them to monitor what activists are doing.
According to whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, two companies in Ukraine, Altron and Delta, provide governmental and private entities with tracking technologies.
Altron, a Kharkiv-based firm, sells technology that analyzes phone calls and Internet use, according to company brochures published by WikiLeaks. Listed among the firm’s clients are the Interior Ministry, the Defense Ministry and the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU.
Altron’s president, Viktor Butenko, said in a statement that the firm does not engage in surveillance, but simply sells technology.
“Participation in social networks can have both a positive and negative effect. It allows activists to act faster., but social networks also help security services to track them,” Potekhin said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Maryna Irkliyenko can be reached at [email protected].
