Internet & Opposition in Algerien
Die NYT berichtet über ein neues Gesetz gegen Cyberkriminalität in Algerien. Die Blogger des Landes fürchten dem Artikel zufolge um ihren Freiraum. Im höchst lesenwerten Nordwestafrikablog “The Moor next door” wird die bedeutung des Internets in der algerischen Politik jedoch weitgehend relativiert:
–––As the article states, internet penetration in Algeria is strikingly low. Mass mobilization is spread through more conventional methods, and the political scene has rendered most people who would mobilize either too wound up in the system or too despairingly apathetic to do so. The concern is not so much political blogs (like Algerie-politique, which is linked to the FFS), but rather quite what its stated intention is; cybercriminals and terrorists. Few Algerian men of politics use the internet (and at the highest levels, including the military and in internal security, many are quite ignorant of it and its applications); in the security forces, the is an understanding of its danger in terms of vandalism and terrorist organizing. Beyond this view — of the internet as a source of trouble — there is not much else. Online mobilization against this year’s referendum was groundbreaking in Algeria’s context, where the internet has almost no political role beyond the Berber movement. This blog has written before about the use of Facebook by Algerians to drum up support for political agendas — especially in the failed attempt to bring fmr. President Zeroual into the 2009 presidential race and Louiza Hanoune’s quite active Facebook page — but these are quite small efforts, of almost no political significance outside of the diaspora and the most wealthy youths.