The Blog vs Big Brother: Information and Communication Technologies and Human Rights, 1980–2005

The study finds that new ICTs, particularly internet access, are positively associated with government respect for human rights, whereas older technologies such as television and landline telephones are negatively associated with them. Using a large-N dataset, the authors argue that the internet empowers civil society and raises the costs of state repression, whereas older mass media can be more easily captured by states for control and demobilization. The results suggest that internet access can leverage the effects of autocratic regimes upward, improving human rights outcomes even in non-democratic contexts.

• Internet access is positively and statistically significantly related to government respect for human rights and negatively related to political terror, even when controlling for income, regime type, and other variables.
• Older communication technologies, specifically television and landline telephone access, are associated with lower respect for human rights.
• New ICTs are qualitatively different from older technologies because they are harder for states to control and provide a space for collective organization and dissent.
• Internet access conditions the behavior of political regimes by raising the effects of autocracies on human rights, suggesting a favorable impact regardless of regime type.
• The substantive impact of internet access on human rights is estimated to be approximately half that of the impact of per capita income.

APA

Muñoz, L. L., & de Soysa, I. (2009). The Blog vs Big Brother: Information and Communication Technologies and Human Rights, 1980–2005. Peace Research Institute Oslo. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/1c6b035a-6255-471d-944b-ddb7e4d100de/The Blog vs Big Brother New and Old Information Technology and Political Repression 1980-2006.pdf?inline=true

Chicago

Muñoz, Lucía Liste, and Indra de Soysa. The Blog vs Big Brother: Information and Communication Technologies and Human Rights, 1980–2005. Peace Research Institute Oslo, 2009. https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/1c6b035a-6255-471d-944b-ddb7e4d100de/The Blog vs Big Brother New and Old Information Technology and Political Repression 1980-2006.pdf?inline=true.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Muñoz |first1=Lucía Liste |last2=de Soysa |first2=Indra |title=The Blog vs Big Brother: Information and Communication Technologies and Human Rights, 1980–2005 |publisher=Peace Research Institute Oslo |date=February 2009 |url=https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/1c6b035a-6255-471d-944b-ddb7e4d100de/The Blog vs Big Brother New and Old Information Technology and Political Repression 1980-2006.pdf?inline=true |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{muoz2009blog, author = {Muñoz, Lucía Liste and de Soysa, Indra}, title = {{The Blog vs Big Brother: Information and Communication Technologies and Human Rights, 1980–2005}}, institution = {Peace Research Institute Oslo}, year = {2009}, month = feb, url = {https://cdn.cloud.prio.org/files/1c6b035a-6255-471d-944b-ddb7e4d100de/The Blog vs Big Brother New and Old Information Technology and Political Repression 1980-2006.pdf?inline=true}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }