Alternative Forms of Governance

АЛЬТЕРНАТИВНЫЕ ФОРМЫ УПРАВЛЕНИЯ

ДИКТАТУРА МЕДИА: ИНФОРМАЦИОННОЕ ОБЩЕСТВО С РОССИЙСКОЙ СПЕЦИФИКОЙ

ИНСТИТУТ STRELKA

2015

ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF GOVERNANCE

INSTITUTE

THE DICTATORSHIP OF MEDIA: INFORMATION SOCIETY WITH RUSSIAN CHARACTERISTICS

ДИКТАТУРА МЕДИА Часто говорят, что мы живем в век информации. Мы слышим это настолько регулярно и на протяжении столь долгого времени, что смысл самого суждения постепенно стирается. Такова сущность эпохи, что даже ее ключевое высказывание тонет в бесконечно растущем объеме информации, которую создают люди, а с некоторых пор — животные и даже неживые объекты. Изобилие иформации растет по экспоненте: уже известно, что 90% мировых данных были произведены за последние два года. Данный факт был обнаружен норвежской исследовательницей Озе Драгланд и выужен мною из тысячи похожих ссылок, сгенерированных Google за 0.35 секунды. Те, кому удается извлекать выгоду из этого информационного взрыва, утверждают, что близится новая эра эгалитаризма и всемогущества пользователя. Интернет спроектирован таким образом, чтобы сопротивляться любой иерархизации и консолидации контроля. Для разработчиков из Силиконовой долины этот посыл превратился в политическую идеологию: в ближайшем будущем они предсказывают рождение общества, в котором веб-граждане занимаются самоуправлением через интернет, а традиционные институты власти канули в небытие. Проект «Диктатура медиа» попробовал столкнуть эти утопические прогнозы с инертной политической культурой России. Построенная в проекте модель показывает, как в будущем вроде бы эгалитаристские методы, типы поведения и бизнес-модели могут быть применены в обществе с совершенно противопожными ценностями. Десятилетиями оптимисты по всему миру носились с идеей того, что технологии информационной эпохи вернут право голоса всем тем, кто его лишился, обличат повсеместное злоупотребление властью и, в конечном итоге, лягут в основу совершенно демократичного мира. Проект показывает, государство с помощью цензуры и прямого контроля может использоваться те же самые методы для достижения абсолютно противоположных целей.

— Брендан Магетрик, куратор проекта

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A DICTATORSHIP OF MEDIA We are often told that we’re living in an age of information. We’ve heard this so often, and for so long, that the claim has lost most of its meaning. Such is the nature of this age that even its epoch-defining title is subsumed in the ever rising tide of informational stuff that humans — and, increasingly, objects and animals — produce. To complicate things further, this abundance increases exponentially: 90% of world’s data was generated over last two years — a fact discovered by Norwegian data scientist Åse Dragland, plucked by me from an inventory of thousands of similar ones generated by Google in 0.35 seconds.

Those who enable and profit from this eruption often say that it signals the start of a new era of egalitarianism and user empowerment. The technology of the Internet is meant to systemically resist hierarchy and consolidated control. Particularly in the pixel of California from whence so many information age technologies originate, the Internet’s decentralized design has been extrapolated into a political ideology, expressed in visions of near future societies where netizens self-govern and the institutions of old hold no sway.

This project explores what happens when these sunny assumptions are exposed to the frigidity of Russian politics. It imagines the future application of supposedly egalitarian tools, behaviors, and business models to a society with opposite ideals. For decades, optimists around the world have embraced the idea that information age technologies can provide a voice for the disenfranchised, expose abuses of power and, ultimately, democratize the world. ‘The Dictatorship of Media’ shows how, through government intervention and content control, these same technologies can be used to do the opposite.

— Brendan McGetrick, tutor

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Information technology has come into governance: now even presidents can be elected with couple of clicks. Going online gives us unprecedented possibilities of political self-expression. But what do those at the other end get instead?

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Definition of the Trend As a part of a global trend, Russia is moving toward an Information Society. Although the technologies and services that define it will be similar to those in other coutries, Russia’s Information Society will be orgnized in a rigid hierarchy, with a media elite shaping the urban environment.

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DEFINITION OF THE TREND

The Russian elite has always sought luxury and surrounded itself with beautiful things and people

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Global Development A leap to the Information Society — the way of life where information becomes the main resource — was predicted almost half a century ago, several generations before the PC ceased to be an element of sci-fi and appeared in every home.

Long before the invention of the smartphone and Wi-Fi, researchers tried to foresee how technology would affect our lives1. Prophets of the third industrial revolution declare that science will lead the world to the postcapitalist society of partnership, equality and sharing2.

Others believe that technology — and information in particular — is a double-edged sword. At first glance, the toolkit that the Internet gives us should simplify and make more transparent the relationships between citizens and the state. E-voting and systems of electronic government services promise a more direct line of communication with authority and a simplified means of organization against it. In part this is already happening: if people are ready, even a coup can now be started with one short message. However, the same tools we use to express our opinion and find like-minded people are used to control and suppress dissent. Twitter, to take one example, is simultaneously a weapon of struggle against 7

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‘ Information Society’ is described for the first time in 1961 by Japanese scientists K. Kurokawa and T. Umesao and almost simultaneously by their American colleague F. Machlup in 1962. Later, the theory of ‘Information Society’ has been developed by such authors as M. Porat and Y. Masuda.

Also the famous philosopher Marshall McLuhan took part in developing of this theme. He used his own term “e-society”.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT

With a social network technology a revolution can start from fewer than 140 characters

the powerful and a surveillance device, through which a single offensive tweet can get you arrested or fired from work. The first reaction of the authorities to the riots is always simple: blocking of a social service or even the entire Internet, as it was in Egypt.

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amous economist F and political adviser Jeremy Rifkin insists that the distributed nature of renewable energy will destroy the hierarchical command system in favor of a network of cooperation which will affect each sphere of social life.

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rom secret docuF ments released by Edward Snowden, top-secret programs PRISM and XKeyscore allow US intelligence agencies to download sensitive information from the servers of the largest Internet and telecommunications companies in the US. Among the companies cooperating with the secret police were Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, Skype, and Apple.

Search engines like Google and social networks like Facebook and Myspace have changed the way we work and play — says economist and social theorist Jeremy Rifkin. Social networks connected millions of people and created a new space for cooperation and brought creativity and innovation into every area.

But when it comes to national interests, the policy of commercial services in terms of ‘sharing’ also appeared to be very flexible. Facebook`s landing page states that it is “free and always will be”. However, one still should have to pay for this convenience. A social network connecting 1.5 billion people worldwide is already funneling personal data to retail companies and the National Security Agency3. Now this data is applied for targeted pricing depending on users’ personal information as well as “targeted political ads”, which were widely used in US presidential elections and very possibly earned Obama some extra votes. The amount of cooperation between data collecting services and power institutions is now a subject of the bargain. But what if there is a political force, which just wants it all?

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Most of these phenomena were foreseen and described by scholars long ago. For example, sociologist Daniel Bell directly stated that the Information Society creates new types of social relations, which should be managed politically. But how exactly this management is performed will be defined by the inner structure and values essential for the particular society.

External researchers, such as sociologist Geert Hofstede, approve this feature. He conducted a study on the cultural specialties of different countries — dividing them by six criteria. According to Hofstede, people in societies exhibiting a large degree of Power distance, which is extremely high in Russia, accept a solid hierarchical order with no need of further justification.

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THE RUSSIAN CONDITION

The Russian Condition Russian society emphasizes ‘traditional values’ and, less officially — power inequality4.

This research strongly correlates with the theory of Simon Kordonsky, who describes the social structure of Russia as a rigid pyramid, dominated by a tiny elite. The power in this pyramid is distributed from top to bottom according to the amount of services rendered to the state by its members. Estates which form the pyramid are relatively closed professional communities, united by common goals and corporate culture: police officers,

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ccording to the A order of the Government of the Russian Federation concerning the Development Strategy of education N 996, among the priorities are the formation of patriotism, a sense of pride for their country, collectivism and the desire to fulfill a moral duty.

Russia’s power inequality approves its rigid hierarchical social structure

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After short periods of confusion the power pyramid always managed to restore itself to its previous form

clerks, workers etc. In return for their service, estates receive different types of privileges and resources — financial, administrative and other. For example civil servants and police have their basic privilege to levy tribute on common people — which is ‘corruption’ in the language of market democracy, but a legitimate privilege in an estate system.

Despite the upheavals of the past hundred years, this structure has managed to reassemble itself to fit feudal, socialist, and capitalist priorities.

Censorship, denunciations, propaganda and pompous public events have always been a powerful weapon of maintaining a rigid hierarchical system on a par with ordinary power methods. The most elaborate forms of manipulation with Censorship, propaganda and information were first pompous public events have used at the same time always been a powerful weapon an estate pyramid of Russia originated — of maintaining a rigid hierarchical with the reforms of system Peter the Great (early XVIII c.). It was then widely developed as a system of political investigation, when any word of disapproval of the actions of the sovereign were perceived as a state crime punishable by death. An obligation to inform 11

THE RUSSIAN CONDITION

about crimes against his Majesty, revolt and treason was also established under penalty of death. Another revolutionary innovation of Peter was the abolition of the patriarchate along with the obligation of clergy to inform the Secret Office of any confessed information if it concerns crimes against the state. From the same time the custom of celebrating the New Year instead of Christmas came in and later became the most important holiday of modern Russians. Only recently has it gradually been displaced by Victory Day, favorite ideological project of Putin’s apparatus.

This picture was the official response of Pavel Durov to Mail.Ru’s attempts to acquire VKontakte

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Russian Trajectories What happens when this power pyramid encounters an informational revolution?

First, as it was described by Bell, many types of new social relations appear.

Hundreds of services fill the voids of the preinformational era, but soon enough this first comparatively uncontrolled phase is replaced by a period of tough regulations. Just like in other countries, Russian IT-companies (Yandex, Kaspersky and numerous internet providers) start to collaborate with government in blocking certain types of information, providing access to personal data and broadcasting ideologically correct messages to the audience. Those who don`t agree with such policy lose their businesses. So it happened with Vkontakte social network, which was withdrawn from its founder and owner Pavel Durov and who was finally forced to leave Russia. Conflict which began with his refusal to block a group of oppositionist Alexei Navalny, ended up with new and loyal manager of Vkontakte Oleg Dobrodeev actively using a new powerful media channel to promote celebration of Victory day in May 2015.

The next step is the establishment of government’s own services and projects, aiming on ‘improving’ interaction between authorities and citizens. For instance, 13

RUSSIAN TRAJECTORIES

application for electronic referendums ‘Active citizen’, which Moscow authorities represent as an instrument of direct democracy, was created about 1.5 years ago and now reaches over 1 million registered accounts. During this time, participants took more than 250 decisions on minor issues such as site selection for bicycle parking, weekend fairs’ schedule Rather than an instrument and the festive decoration of city of direct democracy, ‘Active bridges. Real problems of the city such citizen’ is a tool for retaining as healthcare reform, school closures a loyal audience and parking fee are not discussed in ‘Active citizen’.

The municipal district Zyuzino deputy Konstantin Jankauskas comments: “The ‘Active citizen’ service is used to simulate the municipality residents’ participation in the decisions taken by the authorities. At the same time any attempt of the local referendums on issues that really concern people are blocked”5.

Rather than an instrument of direct democracy, ‘Active citizen’ is a tool for retaining a loyal audience among active Internet users, as well as for attracting new supporters of the authorities. These people actually support the decision taken by the authorities and reveal information about themselves in exchange for scores that can be exchanged for gifts, free parking or travel tickets.

In other words, Information Society tools do not change Russia’s political picture. On the contrary, they are deftly used by the authorities for their own purposes. And apparently it is fine for many of its citizens to give away their political voice, as long as they can get a free ticket in exchange.

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oreover, the M law “On General Principles of Local Self-Government in the Russian Federation” N 131 prescribes services such as ‘Active citizen’ for informational purposes only, but not for decision-making at the local government level.

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The Future Settlement Summing up the above we predict that Russia’s estate structure will adapt to the emergence of an Information Society by redistributing power.

The process of distribution of estates and forming of estate consciousness finalize the shaping of three main estates. The first will be populated by representatives of Russia’s media, strategists dealing with ideation and the identification of key messages. The second estate will consist of media designers: media managers, writers, data scientists, and storytellers who develop the messages of the media elite into content by and for a population of active prosumers. The third estate is the domain of ‘ordinary citizens’ who feed the first estate’s media machine, providing socio-cultural content that is continuously represented in the urban space of Moscow.

This symbiosis creates a sense of participation among the citizens while, in fact, all political activities are scrupulously controlled.

Applications such as ‘Active citizen’ along with other crowdsourcing platforms, will become the main means of interaction between elites and prosumers. Scores will represent the missing privileges of the third estate - the commoners could spend them on any services provided 15

THE FUTURE SETTLEMENT

by the state: pay a parking penalty, pass a queue to the doctor or access to the VIP lodge on a public holiday.

All the activities of two upper estates will focus on the involvement of the third estate in the patriotic projects and activities that support the stability of the social pyramid.

In accordance with the social changes Moscow’s appearance is also changing. Manezhnaya Square, which once housed hundreds of thousands of protesters, will again become the center of political events — this time clearly and carefully controlled. The square itself becomes a place of concentration of ‘smart’ technology; generating Manezhnaya Square, which once and consuming events and userhoused hundreds of thousands of generated content. The interactive protesters, will again become the site allows citizens to express center of political events their support for the Government, vote on the arrangement of the park or city decoration, to participate in discussion of the national idea or watch patriotic movies. Carefully selected and edited media content is projected by designers everywhere on nearby media facades. There one can see the inspirational selfies of townspeople, holiday concerts, speeches by authorities etc.

Mokhovaya Street has become a place of “infinite festive procession’’; a daily mass demonstration of the innovative achievements of Russia performed by the representatives of the third Estate — the latest model of Yotaphone, the new E-mobile, etc. Taking part in any of these activities earns scores to the participant — depending on the quality of the participation.

Finally, even those in whom the spirit of contradiction is still alive won`t be forgotten. The territory of the Alexandrovsky Sad will be specifically allocated under the ‘forbidden’ media theme park. Here, paying an entrance fee in earned previously scores, anyone can legally attend the lectures of opposition politicians, have a cup of coffee with the enemies of regime, see a banned anti-patriotic movie or take part in a provocative theatrical performance.

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Manezhnaya Square 2052 is an ideal place where citizens free to express their political will participate in the wide range of interactive events

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THE FUTURE SETTLEMENT

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PROJECT PARTICIPANTS DIRECTORS Anastassia Smirnova, David Erixon TUTOR Brendan McGetrick STUDENTS Ievgen Kosyk, architect, Moscow; Mikhail Shiyanov, journalist, curator, Moscow; Vladyslav Tyminskyi, urban researcher, Kyiv EXTERNAL EXPERTS Alexander Auzan professor, Dean of Faculty of Economics in Lomonosov Moscow State University

Pavel Demidov International Affairs Advisor, Kudrin Foundation for Civil Initiatives Support

Alexander Bard philosopher, political activist

Pia Mancini co-founder of the Net Party and DemocracyOS

Alexander Morozov director of the UNIK (Insitute of Cultural History) Media Research Center Andrey Levkin writer, publicist Gasan Guseynov member of the HSE Academic Council, Higher School of Economics

Simon Kordonsky, professor, Faculty of Social Sciences / School of Public Administration / Department of Local Administration, Higher School of Economics

Ivan Krastev political scientist, chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, permanent fellow at the IWM, Institute of Human Sciences in Vienna.

Vasily Gatov media researcher, journalist, analyst, media manager and media investment expert.

USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy

Jan Sรถderqvist writer, Liberal Democratic Party of Sweden

Yuri Kuznetsov economist, Higher School of Economics

Kirill Kobrin writer, historian Martin van Creveld military historian and theorist, Professor Emeritus at the Hebrew University

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Sergey Pereslegin researcher, fiction and alternate history theorist

BIBLIOGRAPHY

KEY RESOURCES FOR THE RESEARCH BARD, A. AND SODERQVIST, J. (2002), Netocracy: the New Power Elite and Life After Capitalism, London, Reuters.

LOGUNOVA I., Question time: expert comments on the future of Russian media, calvertjournal.com.

BESSONOVA O. (2006), Razdatochnaya ekonomika Rossii: evolutsiya cherez transformatsii, Moscow, ROSSPEN.

MILLER C., A long way from Moscow. ’Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg’ took on the Kremlin and lost his country and the business he built, mashable.com

BESSONOVA O. (2014) Fenomen Sovetskogo Soyza na fone sovremennosti v kontekste teorii razdatka, Moscow, Mir Rossii, Т. 23. № 3. p.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank our directors and tutors, and most of all Brendan McGetrick, Anastassia Smirnova and David Erixon. Their advice brought the project to a proper level. Special thanks go to Simon Kordonsky, who gave us the main idea of the project and kindly reviewed it when it was almost completed. Also without discussion and collaboration with our fellow Strelka students we wouldn’t feel so connected to the Big Future.

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