In its ability to bring people together, the Internet has commonly been called a "force for good." Is this true? "No" is the simple answer of Foreign Policy writer Evgeny Morozov. That's just the first and broadest of the common statements about the Internet that he contradicts.

Twitter Will Undermine Dictators
#Wrong ...
Google Defends Internet Freedom
Only when convenient ...
The Internet Makes Governments More Accountable
Not necessarily ...
The Internet Boosts Political Participation
Define it. The Internet has certainly created new avenues for exchanging opinions and ideas, but we don't yet know whether this will boost the global appeal and practice of democracy ...
The Internet Is Killing Foreign News
Only if we let it ... we've never had faster access to more world news than we do today ...
The Internet Brings Us Closer Together
No. Geography still matters ...

The Internet is a remarkably useful tool, he acknowledges, but "two decades in, the Internet has neither brought down dictators nor eliminated borders. It has certainly not ushered in a post-political age of rational and data-driven policymaking." Instead, "it has sped up and amplified many existing forces at work in the world, often making politics more combustible and unpredictable." Thus, the Internet hasn't so much changed the world as fueled a "hypercharged version" of the same world that existed before.

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Heather Horn