Befitting the darkness, Online Talks on Eurasian Media – the collaborative initiative between TaRC and the Russian Media Lab (University of Helsinki) – focuses in its November session on a sinister topic.
Political sociologists Françoise Daucé and Francesca Musiani will talk to us about their new book Digital Authoritarianism in the Making – Repression and Resistance on the Russian Internet, which they have edited together with Benjamin Loveluck and which was published this October by the MIT Press.
How did the authoritarian dynamic come to dominate a digital space that was initially free? The book highlights both repressive policies and online resistance on the Russian internet (Runet). While the shift toward authoritarianism is specific to Russia, this model is expanding to all the regions where Moscow is extending its influence.
The book reveals the policies regulating the Russian internet, resituating them within their historical context, starting in the early 2010’s and ending with the start of the full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.
Author bios:
Françoise Daucé is Professor at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris and a member and former director of the Center for Russian, Caucasian, East-European, and Central Asian Studies (CERCEC). She has a PhD in Political Sciences, and she has conducted research e.g., on issues concerning political and social aspects of military transformations as well as the relationships between state administration and civil mobilizations in contemporary Russia.
Francesca Musiani is Research Professor at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), member and director of the CNRS Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). She holds a PhD in socio-economics of innovation, and her research work focuses on Internet governance, in an interdisciplinary perspective merging information and communication sciences, science and technology studies (STS) and international law.
Event info:
This Online Talk will be held on Zoom on Tuesday 11 November 2025, 12.00–13.30 Finnish time (GMT+2).
Participation in the event requires registration. Please registrate via this link before Sunday 9 November 2025 at 23.45 Finnish time.