![]() It was an extraordinary moment in modern history-and Now I Know Who My Comrades Are takes us beyond the Middle East to the next major civil rights battles between the Internet and state control.Star dissidents such as Cuba's Yoani Sánchez and China's Ai Weiwei are profiled. In 2011 ordinary Egyptians, many armed with little more than mobile phones, helped topple a thirty-year-old dictatorship. It's a new phenomenon, but one that's already brought about significant political change. In her groundbreaking book, Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground, Emily Parker, formerly a State Department policy advisor, writer at The Wall Street Journal and editor at The New York Times, provides on-the-ground accounts of how the Internet is transforming lives in China, Cuba, and Russia. ![]() As one blogger put it, "Now I know who my comrades are." Online, people discover that they are not alone. Authoritarian governments try to isolate individuals from one another, but in the age of social media freedom of speech is impossible to contain. And in Russia, a lone blogger rises to become one of the most prominent opposition figures since the fall of the Soviet Union. In Cuba, authorities unsuccessfully try to silence an online critic by sowing seeds of distrust in her marriage. ![]() In China, university students use the Internet to save the life of an attempted murder victim. ![]()
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