Many people have come to believe that a dictatorial regime cannot stand up to a citizenry with unfettered access to the Internet. The free and open exchange of information, this line of thinking goes, leads almost inevitably to a more democratic government. Belief in the power of the Internet to liberate oppressed people has certainly informed the foreign policy of the United States.

Evgeny Morozov rejects all of this.

Morozov is a fellow at the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University, an a contributing editor at Foreign Policy.