There is an interesting article in this week's Newsweek in the Technology Government Debate on whether, or not, the Internet helps build democracies.

So, how strong is "the power of technology to foment democratic revolutions"?

The debate wages between the Cyberskeptics who believe that the Internet will further entrench dictatorships, and the Techno-utopians who believe the power of Internet knowledge will dissolve repressive regimes.

In actual fact, it appears that both sides are right.

On the side of Cyberskeptics, the article reports that autocratic regimes have "mastered the use of cyberspace for propaganda," and have "learned to mine online information, such as Facebook profiles, for intelligence purposes." For example, Iran's Basij militiamen use Facebook.

Alternatively, the article mentions how the "color revolutions in the former Soviet Republics, the post-election protests in Iran, the Saffron revolt in Burma and smaller-scale Chinese demonstrations against corruption and pollution used online tools and mobile phones to organize protesters and project their message around the world."

In dictatorships, government restrictions are avoided creatively. When the Moldovian government blocked phone reception in a square where people were protesting, the protesters simply left the blocked area just a few blocks from the square, posted their tweets, and then returned to the square.

Whatever the case, the foreign policy agenda of the Obama administration is to make Internet freedom a priority, and calls the access to information a "universal right."

Another article in the same edition of Newsweek was devoted to how the Internet further entrenches authoritarian regimes.