5. Digital Resistances in Non-democracies

Russian opposition activists acting from the Internet underground, with the help of social media, performed several prominent acts of defiance against mainstream discourses and monopolistic powers dominating in the country. I also call this “digital resistance”. In this chapter I provide background on the cases of digital resistance to political regimes from non-Western contexts which are close to Russia’s political organisation. These are authoritarian, semi-authoritarian political regimes such as China, Turkey, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The digital emergencies within these countries help in understanding the similarities between these digital resistances and Navalny’s case, and also what makes his case unique among them, as well as taking a broader look at the phenomenon of digital resistance to authoritarian rule.