Will the technologies of anonymization win out over new digital monitoring tools? And will new wireless data technologies foster democracy–or lead to more effective tracking and surveillance?

Six activists from Syria, India, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Venezuela and Azerbaijan aimed to answer these questions at a panel discussion hosted by Georgetown University's Communication, Culture and Technology Program on 25 June, 2012 Washington DC. The event, named CENSORSHIP 2020: The Future of Freedom Online was presented by the Internet Society – Washington DC Chapter (ISOC-DC):

The Arab Spring demonstrated how Internet technologies such as Twitter, blogs, and Facebook could be used to mobilize protesters, publicize corruption and human rights violations, and connect activists and emigres. But in Iran , Syria , and elsewhere, we have seen repressive governments use the Internet to identify and track dissidents, to spread disinformation, and defame political opponents.

The 6 activists were chosen as the 2012 Internet Freedom Fellows by the Mission of the United States in Geneva. The archived video of the talk includes the talk of all 6 speakers: Dlshad Othman from Syria, Pranesh Prakash from India, Koundjoro Gabriel Kambou from Burkina Faso, Global Voices Collaborator Sopheap Chak from Cambodia, Andres Azpurua from Venezuela and Emin Milli from Azerbaijan.