The revolution will be Twittered! declared journalist Andrew Sullivan after protests erupted in Iran in June 2009. Yet for all the talk about the democratizing power of the internet, regimes in Iran and China are as stable and repressive as ever. In fact, authoritarian governments are effectively using the internet to suppress free speech, hone their surveillance techniques, disseminate cutting-edge propaganda, and pacify their populations with digital entertainment. Could the recent Western obsession with promoting democracy by digital means backfire?

Evgeny Morozov, commentator and author of The Net Delusion: How Not to Liberate the World, argues that by falling for the supposedly democratizing nature of the Internet, Westerners may have missed how it also entrenches dictators, threatens dissidents, and makes it harder - not easier - to promote democracy. Marshalling compelling evidence, he shows why we must stop thinking of the Internet and social media as inherently liberating and why highly ambitious and seemingly noble initiatives like the promotion of Internet freedom might have disastrous implications for the future of democracy as a whole. Tweet using #foimorozov to get involved in the debate before, during and after the event.

Fee: £7.20 full / £5.60 concs.

A delight.. his demolition job on the embarrassments of 'internet freedom' is comprehensive... as we go down the rabbit-hole of WikiLeaks, Morozov's humane and rational lantern will help us land without breaking our legs. The Independent

This powerful critique of 'cyber-utopianism' shows us that the net isn't always what we think. Guardian

Gleefully iconoclastic.. not just unfailingly readable: it is also a provocative, enlightening and welcome riposte to the cyber-utopian worldview. The Economist