How tech fuels authoritarians

We always assumed technology and the naked transparency of social media would feed people’s taste for freedom and thirst for democracy. Right now, that assumption looks flawed -- technology might actually solidify the standing of despots and provide them with a new way to exert their power. Ian Bremmer — political scientist, president and founder of Eurasia Group, and author of "Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism" — recently unpacked this issue in a letter to clients. If "the world's most powerful authoritarian states can effectively marshal technologies that give them control over their people...that's a much more geopolitically significant trade to keep favored despots in power than arms sales or even colonialism," he said. Bremmer says changing technology makes him think differently about political stability in China Advances "in facial recognition technology and big data possessed by [Chinese] authorities has dramatically reduced public demonstrations." When everyone is registered in a public database and the Chinese government "can immediately determine who is an enemy of the people, you get fewer self-proclaimed enemies pretty quickly."