The Rise of Digital Repression

Rapid innovation in digital technology has ushered in a new era of political repression. Regimes seek novel ways to control, manipulate, surveil, and disrupt real or perceived internal threats. Research from Thailand, the Philippines, and Ethiopia shows just how far governments will go to maintain political power. As we witness the increased deployment of digital tools by repressive leaders and their agents, what are the implications for democracies and civil society activists who confront them?

Please join us for an event with Steven Feldstein on his new book, The Rise of Digital Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance, in conversation with Josh Chin, moderated by Anne Applebaum.

event speakers

Steven Feldstein
Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program
Josh Chin
Josh Chin is the deputy China bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Josh has spent more than fifteen years reporting on China, the last ten for the Wall Street Journal. He led a team that won the 2018 Gerald Loeb Award for international reporting for a series exposing the Chinese government's pioneering embrace of digital surveillance.
Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for the Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where she runs a project on twenty-first century disinformation. She was a Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She is the author of several history books, including Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism; Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine; The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 ; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

event speakers

Steven Feldstein
Senior Fellow, Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program
Josh Chin
Josh Chin is the deputy China bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Josh has spent more than fifteen years reporting on China, the last ten for the Wall Street Journal. He led a team that won the 2018 Gerald Loeb Award for international reporting for a series exposing the Chinese government's pioneering embrace of digital surveillance.
Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum is a staff writer for the Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where she runs a project on twenty-first century disinformation. She was a Washington Post columnist for fifteen years and a member of the editorial board. She is the author of several history books, including Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism; Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine; The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 ; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

The Rise of Digital Repression

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