Theory and Society, vol. 32, no. 1 (2003): 39–91; Harry Cleaver, Jr., ‘‘The Zapatista Effect: The Internet and the Rise
of an Alternative Political Fabric,’’ Journal of International Affairs, vol. 51, no. 2 (1998): 621–640.
14. Hacktivism combines the notion of ‘‘hacking’’ in its original positive sense, as someone interested in exploring technology, with social and political activism.
15. Jenny Pickerill, ‘‘Radical Politics on the Net,’’ Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 59, no. 2 (2006): 266–282; and Brian
Huschle, ‘‘Cyber Disobedience: When Is Hacktivism Civil Disobedience?’’ The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 16, no. 1 (2002): 69–83.
16. See, for example, Canadian Security and Intelligence Services, Report No. 2000/08: Anti-Globalization—A Spreading Phenomenon (August 2000), http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/publications/perspectives/200008.asp.
17. For an overview, see Ronald Deibert, ‘‘Black Code: Censorship, Surveillance, and the Militarisation of Cyberspace,’’
Millennium, vol. 32, no. 3 (2003): 501–530.
18. See Sarah Henderson, ‘‘Selling Civil Society: Western Aid and the Nongovernmental Organization Sector in Russia,’’ Comparative Political Studies, vol. 35, no. 2 (2002): 139–168.
19. See ‘‘Recent Laws and Legislative Proposals to Restrict Civil Society and Civil Society Organizations,’’ International
Journal for Not-for-Profit Law, vol. 8, no. 4 (August 2006), http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol8iss4/art_1.htm; and
Peter Ackerman, ‘‘The Right to Rise Up: People Power and the Virtues of Civic Disruption,’’ The Fletcher Forum of
World Affairs, vol. 30, no. 2 (2006).
20. See, for example, the NGO-in-a-Box Security Edition, http://ngoinabox.org/boxes/security/.
21. Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999.
22. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘Bullets to Bytes: Reflections on ICT and ‘Local Conflict,’ ’’ in Bombs and Bandwidth: The
Emerging Relationship Between IT and Security, ed. R. Latham (New York: New Press, 2003), 288, 24cm.
23. Ibid.
24. Russian federal law captures cybercrime under 111 separate statutes ranging from ‘‘unlawful access to computer
information,’’ and ‘‘creation, use and distribution of malware,’’ through to fraud and illegal distribution of porn materials and items containing child porn.
25. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘How the Internet Did Not Transform Russia,’’ Current History, vol. 18, no. 4 (2004): 175–200.
26. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘ ‘Secret Agents’ and ‘Undercover Brothers’: The Hidden Information Revolution in the Arab
World’’ (unpublished paper), http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications/ITST_materials/rohozinskibrief3_4.pdf.
27. Thanks to Julian Wolfson for assistance in the research for this section.
28. The silence associated with the arrests of bloggers provides little hard data or resources available to quantify the
occurrences of attacks on bloggers by hostile state actors. To undertake this survey two methods have been
used: Google searches and use of the LexisNexis legal, news, public records, and business information database.
Google searches used the following keywords: blogger arrest, blogger arrested, cyber dissidents, blogger detention, blogger trial, blogger detained, blogger crime, weblog and arrest, weblog and arrested, web log and trial. The
Google search provided a broad spectrum of information only some of which was useful for the research. To separate the data into relevant categories, an assessment was made as to whether the action taken against bloggers
was associated with their online activities. Crimes that were not associated with their blogging directly were not
included in the analysis. For example, the blogger arrested for robbing a bank was excluded from the data set.
For searches on the LexisNexis database a similar method was undertaken. The following keywords were used:
blogger arrest, blogger arrested, cyber dissidents, blogger detention, blogger trial, blogger detained, blogger crime,
weblog and arrest, weblog and arrested, web log and trial. The research for this section was carried out in October
2005.
29. Phil Deans, ‘‘The Internet in the People’s Republic of China,’’ in ed. J. D. Abbot, The Political Economy of the Internet in Asia and the Pacific. Westport: Praeger, 2004: 123–139. Shanth; Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas, Open
Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rules. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, 2003.
30. See ‘‘The Arabist for November 3rd, 2005,’’ http://arabist.net/archives/2005/11/03/.
31. For more information see the case of Najmeh Oumidparvar of Iran, charged and imprisoned for twenty-four days
on March 2, 2005, for posting on her blog a defense of her husband, Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, previously
detained for his posts to his blog. And the case of Mojtaba Saminejad, arrested in Iran on February 12, 2005, for
posting articles to his blog on the arrest of three other bloggers.
148
Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski
of an Alternative Political Fabric,’’ Journal of International Affairs, vol. 51, no. 2 (1998): 621–640.
14. Hacktivism combines the notion of ‘‘hacking’’ in its original positive sense, as someone interested in exploring technology, with social and political activism.
15. Jenny Pickerill, ‘‘Radical Politics on the Net,’’ Parliamentary Affairs, vol. 59, no. 2 (2006): 266–282; and Brian
Huschle, ‘‘Cyber Disobedience: When Is Hacktivism Civil Disobedience?’’ The International Journal of Applied Philosophy, vol. 16, no. 1 (2002): 69–83.
16. See, for example, Canadian Security and Intelligence Services, Report No. 2000/08: Anti-Globalization—A Spreading Phenomenon (August 2000), http://www.csis-scrs.gc.ca/en/publications/perspectives/200008.asp.
17. For an overview, see Ronald Deibert, ‘‘Black Code: Censorship, Surveillance, and the Militarisation of Cyberspace,’’
Millennium, vol. 32, no. 3 (2003): 501–530.
18. See Sarah Henderson, ‘‘Selling Civil Society: Western Aid and the Nongovernmental Organization Sector in Russia,’’ Comparative Political Studies, vol. 35, no. 2 (2002): 139–168.
19. See ‘‘Recent Laws and Legislative Proposals to Restrict Civil Society and Civil Society Organizations,’’ International
Journal for Not-for-Profit Law, vol. 8, no. 4 (August 2006), http://www.icnl.org/knowledge/ijnl/vol8iss4/art_1.htm; and
Peter Ackerman, ‘‘The Right to Rise Up: People Power and the Virtues of Civic Disruption,’’ The Fletcher Forum of
World Affairs, vol. 30, no. 2 (2006).
20. See, for example, the NGO-in-a-Box Security Edition, http://ngoinabox.org/boxes/security/.
21. Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1999.
22. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘Bullets to Bytes: Reflections on ICT and ‘Local Conflict,’ ’’ in Bombs and Bandwidth: The
Emerging Relationship Between IT and Security, ed. R. Latham (New York: New Press, 2003), 288, 24cm.
23. Ibid.
24. Russian federal law captures cybercrime under 111 separate statutes ranging from ‘‘unlawful access to computer
information,’’ and ‘‘creation, use and distribution of malware,’’ through to fraud and illegal distribution of porn materials and items containing child porn.
25. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘How the Internet Did Not Transform Russia,’’ Current History, vol. 18, no. 4 (2004): 175–200.
26. See Rafal Rohozinski, ‘‘ ‘Secret Agents’ and ‘Undercover Brothers’: The Hidden Information Revolution in the Arab
World’’ (unpublished paper), http://www.ssrc.org/programs/itic/publications/ITST_materials/rohozinskibrief3_4.pdf.
27. Thanks to Julian Wolfson for assistance in the research for this section.
28. The silence associated with the arrests of bloggers provides little hard data or resources available to quantify the
occurrences of attacks on bloggers by hostile state actors. To undertake this survey two methods have been
used: Google searches and use of the LexisNexis legal, news, public records, and business information database.
Google searches used the following keywords: blogger arrest, blogger arrested, cyber dissidents, blogger detention, blogger trial, blogger detained, blogger crime, weblog and arrest, weblog and arrested, web log and trial. The
Google search provided a broad spectrum of information only some of which was useful for the research. To separate the data into relevant categories, an assessment was made as to whether the action taken against bloggers
was associated with their online activities. Crimes that were not associated with their blogging directly were not
included in the analysis. For example, the blogger arrested for robbing a bank was excluded from the data set.
For searches on the LexisNexis database a similar method was undertaken. The following keywords were used:
blogger arrest, blogger arrested, cyber dissidents, blogger detention, blogger trial, blogger detained, blogger crime,
weblog and arrest, weblog and arrested, web log and trial. The research for this section was carried out in October
2005.
29. Phil Deans, ‘‘The Internet in the People’s Republic of China,’’ in ed. J. D. Abbot, The Political Economy of the Internet in Asia and the Pacific. Westport: Praeger, 2004: 123–139. Shanth; Kalathil and Taylor C. Boas, Open
Networks, Closed Regimes: The Impact of the Internet on Authoritarian Rules. Washington, D.C.: Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, 2003.
30. See ‘‘The Arabist for November 3rd, 2005,’’ http://arabist.net/archives/2005/11/03/.
31. For more information see the case of Najmeh Oumidparvar of Iran, charged and imprisoned for twenty-four days
on March 2, 2005, for posting on her blog a defense of her husband, Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi, previously
detained for his posts to his blog. And the case of Mojtaba Saminejad, arrested in Iran on February 12, 2005, for
posting articles to his blog on the arrest of three other bloggers.
148
Ronald Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski