Political participation and internet platforms: How new communication technologies help Belarusian civic activists

This article is based on research of political participation practices of Belarusian political and social activists who employed Internet platforms such as social networks or websites in their campaigns. With the proliferation of the Internet, more hopes for significant improvement of political participation opportunities were laid upon new tools of communication in countries like Belarus. Social networks and other Internet platforms attracted attention as tools that can promote public campaigns under the conditions of restricted freedoms and media sphere. The article draws on a qualitative case study of seven civic campaigns and groups that were active in 2011-2013 in Belarus. The data for the research was collected through interviews with leaders of those campaigns. The article suggests that those Belarusian Internet activists who actively employed Internet platforms were able to widen opportunities for the political engagement of citizens. Activists followed main trends that are used among digital political practitioners around the globe. However, some problematic features of the Belarusian political and media systems such as control and persecution of the political actors or Internet censorship did not allow activists to use the potential of Internet platforms to the fullest. Moreover, the list of domains of public policy that could be appealed by activists were restricted by unspoken rules

Movement Leadership and Messaging Platforms in Preemptive Repressive Settings: Telegram and the Navalny Movement in Russia

People who lead anti-authoritarian digitally enabled movements face a leadership visibility dilemma—a necessity to balance security with publicity while mobilizing followers. The article asks how the reliance on instant messaging platforms (IMPs) to coordinate protest internally shapes the response to this dilemma revealed through internal movement organizing analysis. Our case study is social media protest mobilization by Alexei Navalny’s movement in Russia in 2017. We rely on semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis of communication on Telegram during this mobilization. We offer a theory of leadership in an IMP-organized anti-authoritarian movement. It suggests that the use of messaging platforms during social media protest mobilization enhances capacities for visibility management and polycentricity in such movements. It also fosters the emergence of a specific type of protest movement leader—or shadow anti-authoritarian leadership—that is collective, polycentric, and concealed

2017 – ein Jahr der Proteste in Belarus [2017 - a year of protests in Belarus]

2017 witnessed one of the most widespread and successful anti-government protests in Belarus since its independence. People flooded the streets of at least 17 cities. Some of these cities did not experience this kind of mobilisation for 20 years or more. This year, two campaigns attracted the significant numbers of attendants and attention of the public. They are the Anti-tax protest movement and the Kurapaty defence movement. In this article, I will show in what way and why these two protest waves were unusual for Belarus and to what implications for the country they led

Political organisation, leadership and communication in authoritarian settings: Digital activism in Belarus and Russia

Citizens of authoritarian regimes face multiple constraints when they express critical political views using digital media. The regime may monitor their activities, censor their speech or persecute them. Despite these challenges, politically-active citizens organise outside of traditional hierarchical arrangements to advocate for pro-democracy changes. I analyse how the affordances of digital media help activists to organise, to select and to protect their leaders, as well as to distribute information. I use interviews, content analysis and participant observation to study two recent cases of successful political campaigning on digital media. Unusually, both cases managed to challenge the state elites in authoritarian countries, Belarus and Russia respectively. I found that the two studied organisations relied on ad hoc, segmented and shadowed organisational configurations that deployed vast digital communication infrastructures to disseminate information. Journalists, the authorities and the public often misperceived these configurations as either over-centralised or not organised at all. This misperception, as well as the management of leadership visibility on social media, allowed activist groups to protect some of their leaders from persecution. The findings contribute to the discussion regarding the nature of political organising in the digital age by refining and problematising social movement theories for digital authoritarian contents. The study also contributes to the discussion of the strategies that authoritarian regimes use to respond to and combat online opposition. These findings challenge the idea that authoritarian regimes have neared full co-optation of the internet. Instead, the internet should be considered as a battlefield for political influence

Solving Long Lead Times and the High Cost of Space Solar Panels With Upgraded Silicon Technology

Solestial is developing 100% US made solar cells and blankets with \u3e 18% BOL efficiency, over 10 years lifespan, \u3c 3% annual degradation rate, \u3c 400 g/m2 specific mass, \u3e 10 MW manufacturing capacity and $20/W price by 2025. This new solar technology will be beneficial for the projects where high cost, long lead times and low manufacturing capacity of space-grade solar cells and panels are the major barriers for implementation. Here we describe the main features of our solar cells and blankets

A Businessman's Arrest and the Decline of a Regime

On the April 3rd 2015 one of the most prominent hi-tech entrepreneurs of Belarus, Viktar Prakapenia, was arrested in Minsk. By the time the arrest was formally announced in the media,the businessman had already spent more than two weeks in prison. Prakapenia was accused of illegal business activity, specifically making websites and publishing ads on the Internet without state registration “within an organised criminal group” between 2006 and 2008

Belarus. The two hidden mechanisms of media censorship

The Freedom of the Press ranking recently published by Freedom House has found Belarus’ media environment to be Europe’s most restrictive. The ranking placed Belarus as 192nd out of 199 countries and territories within the “worst of the worst” category. These results suggest that media freedom in Belarus has neither been influenced by the country’s recent improvements in its relations with the West nor by the rapid spread of digital technologies. Some of the business community’s representatives have been unsatisfied with the ranking’s results, which call for a deeper reflection on the hidden mechanisms of control that afflict Belarusian media

Information and Communication Technologies and New Possibilities of Political Participation in Belarus

The internet opened new possibilities for political activists around the world. However, there is a lack of scholarship of how activists employ new technologies in non-democratic countries like Belarus. The paper discusses the results of the study of the online campaigns of Belarusian political activists in 2011-2013. It suggests that while activists can successfully employ internet platforms to influence public policy, the outcome of their campaigns is dependent on issues they address

What’s behind Alexei Navalny’s digital challenge to Vladimir Putin’s regime? Five things to know.

My research on the anti-corruption and pro-democracy campaign of Alexei Navalny in Russia looks at the alternative communication space that Navalny and his followers built using social media platforms. This space now dominates online political discussion in Russia. It also influences traditional media and the political agenda of the country, giving Navalny a far-ranging voice