Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices from the Internet Underground

by Emily Parker

An incisive look at the next major battlegrounds between the Internet and state control
In Now I Know Who My Comrades Are, Emily Parker, a former State Department policy advisor and former writer at The Wall Street Journal, provides on-the-ground accounts of how the Internet is transforming lives in China, Cuba and Russia.
In China, university students use the Internet to save the life of an attempted murder victim. In Cuba, authorities try to silence an online critic by sowing seeds of distrust in her marriage. And in Russia, a lone blogger rises to become the most prominent opposition figure since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Authoritarian governments try to isolate individuals from one another, but in the age of Twitter and Facebook, this is impossible. Or as one blogger put it: "Now I know who my comrades are." Social media helps people overcome feelings of powerlessness, leading to the rise of a new kind of citizen.
Emily Parker details how prominent dissidents and ordinary citizens use the Internet to expose injustices and challenge authority. Now I Know Who My Comrades Are is a testament to the power of community in the face of repression.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Technology, China, Cultural, Business

320 pages, Hardcover

First published February 18, 2014

About the author

Emily Parker is the author of "Now I Know Who My Comrades Are: Voices From the Internet Underground" which will be published by Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus & Giroux in February, 2014. Mario Vargas Llosa, winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote that the book is "a rigorously researched and reported account that reads like a thriller. It's been a while since I have read a book that is so entertaining, not to mention so encouraging for the culture of liberty." Vargas Llosa's full article about "Now I Know Who My Comrades Are" can be found here: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/11...

Emily is currently digital diplomacy advisor and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, where she has been writing her book and working on a US-China innovation project. Previously, Emily was a member of Secretary Clinton’s Policy Planning staff at the U.S. Department of State, where she covered Internet freedom, digital diplomacy and open government.

Emily spent over five years working for The Wall Street Journal, first as a writer in Hong Kong and later as an editor in New York. From 2004 to 2005, she wrote a Wall Street Journal column called "Virtual Possibilities: China and the Internet." She was also a staff op-ed editor for The New York Times.

She has worked in China and Japan, and speaks Chinese, Japanese, French and Spanish. She graduated with Honors from Brown University with a double major in International Relations and Comparative Literature (French and Spanish). She has a Masters from Harvard in East Asian Studies.

Reviews

[Jonathan Mckay · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I've read on digital activism, and the best book I've read in 2015.

Parker focuses on heart wrenching stories that take place in China, Russia, and Cuba, and details in an unparalleled way the human element of online activists. I don't know how else to put it, but Parker gets it. She the understands the cultural context in which activism is taking place, and does a good job in explaining how activism leads to non-uniform results that are heavily dependant on the personalities of the members involved and constraints of the societies in which they live.

Having worked at the State Department on human rights and now working at Facebook, I am constantly frustrated with little errors or lazy narratives in documentaries, news, and books on digital activism outside the US. Comrades does not suffer from these problems. I don't know enough about Russia and Cuba to cross check, but her account of activism in China puts books like Age of Ambition, China Airborne, or No Place to Hide to shame.

What is additionally impressive as that Parker relies on a massive body of original research, taking the time to understand the stories of activists that have not learned how to capture the spotlight of western media.

If you want to understand how technology is affecting activism, read this book. If you want to understand how technology is affecting Chinese society, read this book. It's not just better than other books on similar subjects, it's the only one I've found that goes into sufficient depth to get beyond CNN tropes.

I finished the book enlightened but worried. There is a lot at stake, and even more to do.

[Daniel Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really outstanding account of how wannabe democrats around the world use the internet to expose the problems in their society, culture, and governments. I learned quite a bit by reading these accounts. One thing for sure. Keep supporting the world wide web and net neutrality. corrupt governments will eventually capsize on the free flow of information via the web, twitter, blogging, facebook, etc. It may not have been the author's intention, but if Americans want to value their freedom more, read everything these people are doing to try to get what we already have.

[Zara Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great - finally, a book about internet and society that focuses on views from parts of the world other than simply the US and Europe, written by someone who clearly has extensive experience in various different cultures as well as the ability to speak to people in their own languages and really understand their perspectives. It was refreshing to get these different perspectives, and an interesting read too!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

By profiling internet activists in repressive regimes, Parker creates a portrait not just of dissent and the possibilities of internet activism, but she also helps create a picture of exactly what censorship and repression looks like in the modern age. It's a thoroughly engrossing read, and anyone looking to understand what democratic activism looks like in a technologically saturated world should read this book.

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Saw Emily Parker speak at New America Foundation in New York and was so impressed I bought the book after the talk. It did not disappoint. Parker is a sold writer - forceful but never overstating her points. She is also a thorough interviewer as reflected in the full portraits of Internet activists throughout the book.

[Chris Aylott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Parker gives a clear-eyed appraisal of the challenges facing and strengths of online dissident movements in China, Cuba and Russia. She does a particularly good job of presenting the viewpoints of the people she profiles, showing how the cultures they have grown up in influence their speech and their assumptions.

[Lee Parker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this for free through Goodreads First Reads

This nonfiction book was fascinating!! You don't really realize how bad people in other countries have it. The section on China was a real eye opener. Very glad I read this.

[Dariel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommend this book. Very engaging and insightful. As a Cuban-born writer myself, I couldn't appreciate it more.

[Sunset · Rating 4 out of 5]

Timely and very interesting to read about how the internet is used and censored in China and Russia.

[Nina Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so engaging that I felt like a spectator of a thriller movie, watching the author traveling to authoritarian countries to meet dissidents and activists in sometimes dangerous settings. The picture it paints is vivid and the characters multifaceted, yet the book is very informative.

The author did a great job of documenting changes to the Internet in China, Cuba, and Russia through the personal narratives of online activists. The author herself is part of the story as well. While visiting Cuba, she went to meet, but missed connecting with, a dissident blogger who turned out to work for the state. The author’s passport was examined and her visa was taken by the owner of the bed-and-breakfast she was staying. That moment provided quite a bit of suspense, waiting to see if she could leave Cuba without any trouble. Even while putting herself into interaction with the activists, the author still remains objective in her observation and analysis, and gives the readers a balanced picture.

I am a journalist from China, and found that the part of the book focusing on China provided me with insider stories and many perspectives to consider. I was intrigued by the parallel narratives on He Caitou and Michael Anti, both of whom are well-known bloggers, but who have different ways of dealing with the authorities — one a fighter and one a cooperator. Their thoughts and the circumstances that have led them to these ideas constitute engaging human-interest stories.

What’s more, the author spent a decade going to these three countries, following and interviewing many activists, and is able to weave the stories of these activists together in one book — a tremendous undertaking. The book provides readers a comparative view on activists and the countries in which they are operating. Without such close examination, readers might incorrectly think all authoritarian countries are the same.

Some of the situations described are quite depressing: governments crack down the Internet, monitor and follow activists, or simply throw them in prison. Thus, it is even more important to let the world know about the underground voices on the Internet who are exploring the truth and finding their communities. It’s a very interesting read and I highly recommend this book.

[Stephen Rynkiewicz]

Weren't we clever running an underground newspaper in high school? It had the whiff of samizdat--manuscripts self-published outside Soviet review. Yet though our zine had escaped the authority of adult editors, we had nothing to say worth their notice. Jump to this decade, where Emily Parker has made a study of self-publishing in China, Cuba and Russia. Free speech is harder to stifle in the internet age, but the suppression gives it authority.

China's message of resistance is coded; clampdowns are erratic but fierce. After Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution, Parker writes, the word for jasmine was blocked in text messages and the flower itself disappeared from market stalls. In Cuba bandwidth is rare, yet blogger intimidation is constant. The Russian backdrop seems scariest because the dissidents speak the most freely: The Kremlin ignores them, and so do cynical citizens.

Parker gives an outside-looking-in account of her contacts with dissidents, and their furtive nature simultaneously confirms and undermines their authority. Is Parker getting the real story? She finds it admirable that through isolation in China, fear in Cuba and apathy in Russia, people are still driven to speak out. That's reason enough to listen.

[Tim Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love story. Try story. Personal story. Parker observes digital impact to society via personal story lenses. It is memorable.

I seldom think about society impact from internet. Her deep thinking makes sense. Big impact

Political topic is less interesting to me but this book caught my eyes and focuses

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was hesitant at first because the tone in the beginning seemed flippant, but as I read I realized Parks was doing something I hadn’t seen before - real life stories of digital activists in three authoritarian countries. A very good book and an insightful read, perhaps even more important 8 years later as we continue to see the same repression (and worse) from the countries involved.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summary on this site gives a good preview of the book. I would characterize it as most interesting but not surprising. Did seem a little dated.

[naffle · Rating 5 out of 5]

my first time reading a book from such a genre and i loved it !!

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Now I Know Who My Comrades Are" takes it's title from one of the author's many conversations with Zhao Jing, one of China's most well know bloggers, who writes under the pen name Michael Anti. Emily Parker, is currently a digital diplomacy adviser and senior fellow at the New America Foundation, and previously was a member of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policy planning staff, where she focused on digital diplomacy, internet freedom, and open government. In this book, Parker gives insight into the political culture of China, Cuba, and Russia, through the first hand accounts of multiple internet dissidents in each country.

In China, the ruling government's main tactic in regards to the internet is isolation and censorship. All internet data is monitored, many foreign news and networking sites are blocked, and occasionally the entire state-run internet and newspapers are shut down to prevent the spread of information that is unfavorable to the ruling government. Michael Anti, and other dissidents, rely on proxy servers to get around "The Great Firewall", writing in code to avoid monitors, and self-censorship to avoid becoming a target for retribution. As Anti told Parker, "I'm a journalist and I know not to call for action."

In Cuba, a culture of fear has been cultivated for decades by citizen informants. When meeting with Cuban dissidents, they explain to Parker that "you never know who is who", and "you see agents or informers everywhere". In Cuba, this isn't paranoia, it's reality. In 1960, Fidel Castro created the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) in which each block has it's own CDR, "so that everybody knows who lives on the block, what they do, and what relations they have with tyranny, and with whom they meet."

Dissident bloggers like Laritza Diversent, Reinaldo Escobar, and others like them are working to change that. Diversent, a lawyer, runs a blog called "Laritza's Laws" which educates Cubans about their rights, and also gives free in-person legal advice. Escobar, also a writer, bucks the common culture of fear, saying "I comport myself like a free man."

In Russia, the social and political culture is a lot more similar to the United States. The government is relatively tolerant of dissent, largely ignoring it rather than trying to stop it all together, and the biggest hurdle to democratic involvement is the widespread perception that it won't make a difference. In Russia, this perception is likely more justified, as political and electoral corruption is rather flagrant, with widespread reports of ballet stuffing leading to the United Russia party winning 99% of the vote in some districts.

Parker profiles Alexey Navalny, a lawyer and anti-corruption activist who started out by proposing "the comfortable way of struggle". Understanding the perception of inability to affect change, Navalny started with small goals, like getting people to sign a petition or write a letter, and gradually built up to become a leader in protests involving hundreds of thousands of Russians.

In each country, the internet has brought greater access to information, even when it is partially censored or not available to the majority of citizens. Parker shows how it has greatly changed the lives of those who use it, as Michael Anti told her, "the internet made me who I am." It is lessening or eliminating people's feelings of powerlessness, as it gives them ways to express their views and organize with other citizens. Parker doesn't predict that the internet alone will spark revolution or governments being overthrown, though the greater level of communication would be a facilitator if a large political or economic crisis became the spark. In the meantime, the internet is most certainly helping to build new leaders that are effectively challenging the ruling government, and accumulating victories along the way, perhaps creating the slower process of political "evolution, not revolution".

Read more of my book review at: http://kenbraley.blogspot.com/

[Kareem Saleh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now I Know Who My Comrades Are is one of the most riveting and enriching books I’ve ever read.

I’m not particularly interested in the Internet, so I approached this book with some trepidation, only to be delighted and deeply affected by its rich on-the-ground portrait of 21st century dissidents in China, Russia and Cuba. In this riveting page-turner, the author, who traveled extensively (and in some cases at great personal risk) takes you to the streets and back alleys of Beijing, Havana and Moscow where she details the cat-and-mouse game between authoritarian governments and ordinary citizens trying to overcome the punishing hand of state control.

Parker tells us poignant and deeply human stories, for example of a Communist party loyalist whose allegiance to Beijing is shattered by images of the Tiananmen crackdown he sees online, or of a Cuban judge so disgusted by the injustices wrought by the Castro regime that she takes to the web to inform fellow citizens how to assert their rights under the law. In the Russia section we are introduced to an upstart anti-corruption activist, Alexey Navalny, who launches online campaigns to build a network of engaged citizens demanding political and corporate reforms, and in doing so challenges Vladmir Putin’s once iron-clad grip on power.

The author does not romanticize the individuals she profiles, nor does she engage in Pollyanna-ish “the internet will set you free” arguments. Instead, the greatest virtue of this book is its use of funny, terrifying and uplifting stories to illustrate the irreversible psychological transformation that the Internet catalyzes by delivering truths that upend the official government line. As Parker transports you from Beijing to Havana to Moscow, you will hear the battle cry of 21st century freedom fighters everywhere: Now I know who my comrades are.

[David Sasaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider Emily a friend and, rather than writing a typical review, I had intended to interview her about the book. Unfortunately, I never got past the intention. Among the questions I wanted to ask:

I assume you were already writing (or, at least, researching) your book when the Arab Spring took place in North Africa. And there were all those massive social media-fueled protests in Turkey, Mexico and Brazil. Ironically, the three countries featured in your book -- Cuba, China, and Russia -- are still far from any hints of regime change. Yet, your book described more subtle, societal changes taking place in all three countries that are partly engendered by Internet culture.

The Stanford Professor Larry Diamond speaks of Liberation Technology, which always sounded even sillier to me than liberation theology. And yet something that stands out about all the protagonists in your book is that they all seem more liberated than their peers. Do you think that blogging had a liberating effect, or that liberated individuals are more naturally drawn to blogging?

You've made a career for yourself -- as a journalist, diplomat, and now author -- studying bloggers. We're you ever a blogger yourself? Where did the interest come from?

As you were writing and researching this book the Arab Spring took place in North Africa. There were massive social media-fueled protests in Turkey, Iran and Brazil. Ironically, the three countries featured in your book -- Cuba, China, and Russia -- are still far from any hints of regime change. Yet, your book described more subtle, societal changes taking place in all three countries that are partly engendered by Internet culture.

[Joe User · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, written by a long-time journalist who's worked for both the Wall Street Journal and the NY Times, analyzes how dissidents in three authoritarian countries are using the Internet to change the realities on the ground. Fast paced and informative, the writing brings readers onto the streets and into the digital networks of China, Cuba and Russia, and shows how the psychological afflictions of isolation, fear and apathy respectively affect each country.

The book is based on extensive, in-depth interviews with famous and not-so-famous dissident bloggers who are mostly allowed to speak for themselves. Ms. Parker avoids the binary thinking (the Internet must instantly free the masses or it's useless!) and techno-utopianism (yay Internet!) that plague so much writing about the Interwebs, and instead focuses on the concrete, incremental moves that both the dissidents and authoritarian governments play against each other.

This is a great book for anyone interested in social media and/or world politics. It's not only suitable for scholars and activists, but also for those just learning about the subject.

[Marilynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Internet activism explored in detail in China, Cuba, and Russia. This is really an eye opening account of how governments attempt to keep the status quo through isolation, fear and apathy. Isolaton through censorship; fear through arrests and intimidation; and apathy through fostering a sense of helplessness. How internet activists attempt to spur change by using social networks to bring people together. Emily Parker has presented an important work. I would love to see another such in depth report in light of continuing declines in civil liberties and political freedoms around the world. To quote Mandeep S.Tiwana of CIVICUS; "The possibility of people’s power being able to overturn entrenched political systems has made authoritarian regimes extremely fearful of the free exercise of civic freedoms by citizens. This has led to a severe push back against civil society."

I received this book through the Goodreads Giveaway.

[Veronika Bel · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an accessible and fascinating way to connect three countries with unique liberty and freedom expression struggles and tease out the common denominators. A page turner that leaves you wanting and researching more. As a native Russian speaker, the Russia section was accurate and realistic. It hit a nerve. I expected to enjoy it the most. But, I was surprised just how enthralled I was with the Cuba and China sections - two countries I knew little about. Parker made me want to learn more, not just about these characters, but about the role internet plays in repressive and westerns societies world-wide. Her most recent article on struggling internet voices in Vietnam was particularly eye opening.

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is doomed to quickly become obsolete, considering the pace at which things move on the internet. However, this feels like the most politically important book I've read since 'Half the Sky' was released 5-ish years ago; I would love to see it get the same level of attention. I found this book incredibly enlightening and educational - my eyes have been opened to issues I was once completely ignorant about.

[Full disclosure: I won this book for free in a Goodreads First Reads Giveaway.]

[Samuel Greene · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent, though-provoking excursion into the lives of otherwise ordinary people who find themselves at odds with their governments in three countries where being at odds with the government is often ill advised. The book is less about the Internet than it is about how people interact with power and develop their own sense of empowerment, providing a sobering look both at what new communications technologies can help people achieve, and at how much still remains to be accomplished.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice structure, focusing three different sections of the book on three different countries--China, Russia, and Cuba. It was also a very readable narrative format, broken into blog-sized chunks for nice, episodic digestability. At times, I would have liked a little more discussion and analysis of how U.S. policy shapes blogging infrastructure across the globe--and potentially some concrete recommendations for policy improvement.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid presentation of how the internet has been used in China, Cuba, and Russia in the face of isolation, fear, and apathy (respectively). The portions on China and Cuba are the most compelling. Echoing this review, what's lacking here is any kind of synthesis of the three parts.

[Chuck Knudsen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parker looks at dissidents in China, Russia, and Cuba, to see how the Internet is changing the way activists...activate. It was really interesting stuff, but each section seemed to be a bit too long.

[Cheryl Dietr · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative and somewhat unnerving book. The internet will never be the same after you examine the ideas put forth by the author. The only negative the book is somewhat repetitive in places. It was also borrowed by a friend who cited it in a college paper. She thought it was an excellent read.

[Kme_17 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this as a first read. I really liked this book. It definitely interesting with a lot of stories about the internet. I did enjoy that author showed the positive side of the internet, but did talk about the challenges. A really good nonfiction book.

[Andrei · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Russian chapter is very, very good, all main characters introduced, and good analysis as well.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insight into how the internet shapes dissent in countries controlled by authoritarian governments