Digital freedom is a powerful tool for truth

Viewpoint: Christian Science Monitor (excerpt) The lie couldn’t last for long, not in the Internet Age.

Last Thursday, President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that the troops in unmarked uniforms who took control of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula last month were Russian soldiers after all, not the local militia that he had claimed. What made Putin fess up?

Perhaps it was the fact that many Russians are turning to social media activists for the truth. One example is Ukraine Crisis Media Center. It runs a fact-checking website called StopFake.org, which relies on dozens of volunteers to gather information that can refute the propaganda about Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

In Ukraine, the use of the Internet to spread truth remains a powerful tool to counter Putin’s attempts to paint a f alse picture. It may even have helped push Russia into an agreement in Geneva that calls for all illegal armed groups in Ukraine to be disarmed.

Nearly two-thirds of Russians say it is important that people have access to the Internet without government censorship, according to a 2013 Pew poll. But over the past two years, Putin has tried to rein in the Internet, and other media, to manipulate public opinion.

In January, investors close to Putin took control of the largest social media network, VKontakte. And a law that took effect Feb. 1 allows websites to be blocked if they are seen as “extremist” or inciting antigovernment protests. More than 100 sites have been shut down so far in an attempt to stifle political opposition.

Russia is going down the path of other nations that either track dissent on the Internet or ban it. The most rigorous censorship may be in China, which employs a virtual army to control cyberspace. Despite such controls, the Chinese continue to find digital ways to get around censors and claim their “right to connect.”

Digital freedom is a threat only to leaders who claim a monopoly on power and seek to control the flow of ideas. Yet to be strong and prosperous in the Internet Age, digital freedom is essential. In a crisis like the one in Ukraine, it can be a powerful tool for truth. As the late Russian dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “One word of truth outweighs the whole world.”