The Internet is one of the most pervasive aspects of modern life. From the Arab Spring to Gezi Park protests in Turkey, Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter in the US, Yellow Vests in France, RickyLeaks in Puerto Rico, Hong Kong protests, and beyond, the Internet has been instrumental in shaping social movement activism in recent years. Protest movements in our times have all benefitted from the interconnectivity and interactive networks afforded by the Internet. It is thanks to the Internet that social movement activists are able to bypass the confines and restrictions imposed on dissent and civic organizing by those ensconced in the corridors of power. But the Internet is a double-edged sword. Authoritarian governments also use the Internet for surveillance and gathering intelligence, tracking down and hunting dissidents, foiling and squashing protests, and propagandizing and ensuring that the government's line reigns supreme in public discourse. In many ways, the centrality of digital activism to social movements and tyrants alike is indicative of how the Internet and modern technologies have transformed our lives and the way we do things: from protests, civic mobilization, political participation, and social control down to, inter alia, learning, managing finances, commerce, shopping, and accessing entertainment. While most people around the globe use the Internet in one way or another, only a small number know how the Internet has come about and developed.
In his Essays on the History and Politics of the Internet: Cyberpolitics, Jeffrey A. Hart sets out to provide a comprehensive, yet concise, primer on the history and impact of the Internet for specialists and non-specialists alike. A political scientist by profession, Hart's narrative is preoccupied with the implications of the Internet's development and rise to ubiquity for the distribution of power in society and internationally….