Information Security and Authoritarian Stability: Diversity and Convergence in the Former Soviet Region

This paper examines Internet policy choices across non-democratic regimes of the former Soviet region. Global analysis shows that the region presents a pattern of policy clustering, with many states adopting similar approaches to Internet regulation. The implication that specific policies are being diffused within the region is further substantiated by close examination of trends over time. While the region stood out in the 2000s for an “asymmetric” approach to Internet regulation, with limited online restrictions relative to “offline” repression, this began to change in the late 2000s. Policy shifts have often been triggered by episodes of domestic political instability, but they are also shaped and limited by the restriction technologies, regulatory models, and technological expertise regimes have at their disposal. The paper traces dynamics of learning, policy emulation, technology transfer, and other diffusion mechanisms, demonstrating that many states have looked to Russia and China as models in the development of domestic Internet policies.