8. Russia and China: Autocratic and On-line

Russia and China have both witnessed explosive growth in the use of the Internet, with Russia representing the fastest-growing Internet and social media market in Europe, and China near the top worldwide. In this chapter we consider the role of social networking tools in the creation of an online public sphere and as a means of initiating mass protests and uprisings in the authoritarian regimes of China and Russia. We argue that not only have these repressive regimes survived the advancement of the Internet and social media, but both states have shown skill in bending the technology to their own interests. Both cases help us understand how the potential democratising power of the social media is limited in autocratic states that manage to mute, constrain and control online debate, and even use it to promote their own agendas.