[x-pubpol] Internet Censorship increases Protests

[Joly MacFie]

New Research: Internet Censorship To Stop Protests... Actually
Increases Protests, Techdirt
We've been arguing for a while that attempts by various governments to
shut down forms of communication during protests and riots only serves
to make protesters and rioters angrier. Some new (quite timely)
research, pointed out by Mathew Ingram, seems to agree that internet
censorship tends to make such problems worse. The research is a quick
read, and certainly goes further than efforts like L. Gordon Crovitz's
"it's okay if the world didn't end."
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110815/12070615534/new-research-internet-censorship-to-stop-protests-actually-increases-protests.shtml


Why Net Censorship in Times of Political Unrest Results in More
Violent Uprisings: A Social Simulation Experiment on the UK Riots
Antonio A. Casilli Telecom ParisTech Paola Tubaro University of
Greenwich August 14, 2011
Following the 2011 wave of political unrest, going from the Arab
Spring to UK riots, the formation of a large consensus around Internet
censorship is underway. Beyond all political consideration of
consequences in terms of freedom of expression, the present paper
adopts a social simulation approach to show that the decision to
"regulate" or restrict social media in situations of civil unrest
results in higher levels of violence. Building on Epstein's (2002)
agent based model, several alternative scenarios are generated.
Systemic optimum, represented by complete absence of censorship, not
only corresponds to lower levels of violence over time, but allows for
significant periods of social peace after each outburst.
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1909467



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