Since the “White Shirts” campaign in July last year, it is notable that the nation’s “net citizens” have unlocked a brand new kind of politics, which is opposed to the traditional mode of politics.
After the nine-in-one elections, both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) simultaneously recognized the fact that net citizens were playing a crucial role in the transformation of the political environment.
The film Silent Code (BBS 鄉民的正義) recorded the birth of net citizenship and how it exerts a powerful influence in both the virtual and the real world.
In what follows, some critical implications of the birth of net citizens and their possible effect on net democracy in Taiwan are explored.
During the governance of the party-state democracy led by the KMT, the notions of transparency and human rights were always neglected. This means that in the past, public affairs were carried out under the table, and the exchange of political interests became normal within the structure of party-state governance and beneath the surface of two-party politics.
However, the wave of new socio-political movements (from last year’s white shirt movement to the Sunflower movement earlier this year) demonstrates the fact that “real democracy” will not be controlled by a small number of politicians making backroom decisions and that, in essence, people have the political right to take part in political decisions through the Internet and the media.
In general, the main effect of net citizenship is to revolutionize political orientation and make public issues more transparent and more readily adaptable to meet the public’s needs and its expectations of social justice.
One point that needs to be considered is the debate on “social reality” and “privacy protection” in the virtual political arena. Another issue is that false information can mislead net citizens concerning the obscure boundary between the regulation and the deregulation of “freedom of speech” in the virtual world.
Critically speaking, the sudden explosion of an “Internet army” led by different political groups has demonstrated that we are situated in a discursive epoch where the production and propaganda of political discourse reconstructs the new imagination of political governance.
Nevertheless, what we need to question and rethink is whether the birth of net citizens and net democracy is really sweeping away corruption to create the possibility of “full democracy” in Taiwan. Moreover, the way the quality of net democracy is evaluated raises new questions in the field of social science.
When considering the idea of embracing “net democracy” constructed by net citizens, the concept of democracy needs to be redefined and reconceptualized. The birth of net citizens not only opens up a new possibilities for political participation, it also raises questions about boundaries and the responsibilities of political speech.
Indeed, the real implication of net citizenship in the age of net democracy is that those who control the Internet win the political victory in the end.
Chung Ming-lun is a doctoral candidate at the University of Sheffield in England.
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