From 2017 – 2018, we have seen how cyber attacks against media and political parties, and disinformation in social media have steered the public opinion in major elections, and is heightened in less democratic countries. Kyrgyzstan’s 2017 election is an useful case study for research and analysis on the impact cyber war during an election and identify means to limit the implications. In Kyrgyzstan, media is regarded as Not Free by Freedom House, and government critical media outlets often face hostility and threats from the government. Kyrgyzstan applies selective Internet filtering in political and social events, doing so increasingly in recent years. The timeliness of this project is especially important as such escalations in censorship and other digital threats often occur extremely quickly. By better understanding the techniques used in repressive regimes to disrupt access to independent media during political and social events, the internet freedom community will be able to better design technologies and techniques to keep news content accessible and available despite escalated censorship.
Results of this project can be found here: https://www.qurium.org/alerts/kyrgyzstan/kyrgyzstan-election/
