Digital Authoritarianism: Tech Empowers Dictators, But Also Enables Dissent

An essay in Foreign Affairs argues that while digital technologies enhance authoritarian control through surveillance and propaganda, they also create new avenues for dissent, as seen in the 2022 Russian TV protest. The piece highlights the dual-use nature of technology in autocratic regimes, noting that the same tools that suppress can also expose and mobilize. The analysis is conceptual, drawing on historical and contemporary examples, and underscores the ongoing tension between state power and citizen resistance in the digital age.