ABSTRACT

One theme of writings on the Internet is the possibility of creating new publics and new political communities through the use of electronically-mediated communication.1 It has been suggested that the Internet allows activists to overcome “the politics of location” and to form webs of solidarity which cross national boundaries. We have seen, for example, extensive use of the Internet in the form of pacifist e-mail petitions in response to the US-led “war on terrorism” in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. Indeed, in the years leading up to these events, the Internet was an important site for the dissemination of information and the mobilization of international public opinion on such issues as “ethnic” riots and sexual violence in Indonesia, political repression in East Timor, the oppression of women by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the destruction of world heritage sites by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the campaign for a Japanese government apology and compensation to survivors of the wartime military prostitution system in East and Southeast Asia, the campaign for a government apology for the treatment of the “stolen generation” of indigenous people in Australia, campaigns against the mandatory use of the national flag and national anthem in Japan, and in many more localized campaigns. Others, however, are more skeptical of the possibilities of the Internet as a medium for local, national and transnational political action.2