Excerpt from The New Digital Age (about Mongolia)

Google-ийн томцуул болох Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman), Jared Cohen (Director of Google Ideas) нар хамтран The New Digital Age хэмээх ном бичжээ. Технологийн хурдацтай дэвшил нь манай дэлхийд ирээдүйд хаана хүргэх вэ? Ирээдүйд ямар сорилтууд тулгарах вэ? Хэн хүчтэй болох вэ? Ямар асуудлууд улам хурцаар тавигдах вэ? зэрэг асуултад хариу өгөх зорилготой, товчхондоо ирээдүйн талаар бичсэн ном юм байна. Саяхан хүнээс бэлгэнд авчихаад унших завгүй хааяа дэмий л эргүүлж суутал санаандгүй Монголын тухай гарахаар нь хуваалцая гэж бодлоо. Монгол улсын интернэтийн эрх чөлөөтэй байдал нь хэтдээ интернэтийн эрх чөлөөгүй жижиг үндэстнүүдийг өөртөө татах, орогнуулах, манай интернэтийг ашиглан үйл ажиллагаагаа явуулах нөхцөл болж магадгүй, энэ нь эцэстээ Орос, Хятадын дургүйцлийг төрүүлж, манайх интернэтдээ хяналт тавихаас аргагүй байдалд орж мэднэ гэсэн санаа гаргасан байх юм.


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There will be some instances where autocratic and democratic nations edit the web together. Such a collaboration will typically happen when a weaker democracy is in a neighborhood of stronger autocratic states that coerce it to make the same geopolitical compromises online that it makes in the physical world. This is one of the rare instances where physical proximity actually matters in virtual affairs. For example, Mongolia is a young democracy with an open Internet, sandwiched between Russia and China – two large countries with their unique and restrictive internet policies. The former Mongolian prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold explained to us that he wants Mongolia, like any country, to have its own identity. This means, he said, it must have good relations with its neighbors to keep them from meddling in Mongolian affairs. “We respect that each country has chosen for itself its own path in development,” he said. With China, “we have an understanding where we stay out of Tibet, Taiwan and Dalai Lama issues, and they don’t interfere with our issues. The same applies with Russia, with which we have a long-standing relationship”.

A neutral stance of noninterference is more easily sustainable in the physical world. Virtual space significantly complicates this model because online, it’s people who control the activity. People sympathetic to opposition groups and ethnic minorities within China and Russia would look at Mongolia as an excellent place to congregate. Supporters of the Uighurs, Tibetans or Chechen rebels might seek to use Mongolia’s internet space as a base from which to mobilize, to wage online campaigns and build virtual movements. If that happened, the Mongolian government would no doubt feel the pressure from China and Russia, not just diplomatically but because its nation infrastructure is not built to withstand a cyber assault from either neighbor. Seeking to please its neighbors and preserve its own physical and virtual sovereignty, Mongolia might find it necessary to abide by a Chinese or Russian mandate and filter Internet content associated with hot-button issues. In such a compromise, the losers would be the Mongolians, whose online freedom would be taken away as a result of self-interested foreign powers with sharp elbows.