International uprisings the recent years have resulted in thousands of political prisoners who expressed dissent via traditional means and on social media, The Washington Post reported.
Many of the demonstrators being detained are young and first-time dissidents under authoritarian regimes in such places as Hong Kong, Cuba, Iran, Russia, and China, the Post's editorial board reported.
Such political prisoners include:
- Danuta Perednya, a 21-year-old sentenced to 6½ years in prison after posting a social media message critical of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
- Salma al-Shehab, a Saudi woman sentenced to 34 years in prison and to a 34-year travel ban after she tweeted an appeal for the release of a women's rights activist.
- Olesya Krivtsova, a 19-year-old Russian student who, after criticizing Putin's war in Ukraine, was added to a list of terrorists and extremists, charged with discrediting the military and put under house arrest. She's facing seven years in prison.
The Post reported that Belarus and Cuba have had more than a thousand political prisoners each in recent years.
China remains the world's most repressive country.
"The Congressional-Executive Commission on China estimates there are 2,506 active cases of detention in China, referring to political and religious prisoners currently known or believed to be detained or imprisoned, or under coercive controls," the Post said.
"Another database, maintained by the Dui Hua humanitarian organization, which has tracked political and religious cases since 1980, lists 7,683 active cases, many of whom are members of the outlawed Falun Gong religious group."
While authoritarian regimes cracking down on dissent is not new, the digital revolution has presented major changes.
The internet has offered an easy place to be heard.
"It was open, decentralized, beyond a state's control; it was global and empowered hundreds of millions of people to speak their minds without fear of retribution," the Post said.
"Even when a prosperous and rising China sought to close itself off from the global internet with a Great Firewall and vast censorship, the digital byways still erupted periodically with fury and criticism. The world didn't change overnight — fear of speaking out still lingered for many. But for a time, free speech began to outpace the ability of government to control it."
Authoritarian regimes, however, have fought back.
Freedom on the Net 2022 reported that authorities in 40 countries blocked social, political or religious content online, an all-time high.
"Social media has made people feel as though they can speak openly, but technological tools also allow autocrats to target individuals," the Post wrote. "Social media users leave traces: words, locations, contacts, network links.
"Protesters are betrayed by the phones in their pockets."
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