Conclusion

When I set out to research the topic of the Zapatista Internet presence, little did I know how many WWW sites were dedicated to the EZLN and their cause and how many more merely mentioned it. I quickly found out, however, that only a select few of these sites do merit closer attention, some because of the sheer amount of content, such as ¡Ya Basta!, others because of the novel approach they take to the Zapatista struggle, such as Zapnet. The Internet is in a constant state of flux; sites are being created and destroyed every day. Most WWW sites now sport "under construction" signs on a permanent basis, signifying that a Web page is more of a stream-of-consciousness work rather than a fixed and finite piece of writing. Naturally, new sites on the Zapatistas will begin to appear and this project will be inaccurate shortly after it is published, but I believe there is a lasting quality that will endure as long as anybody cares enough about a cause to publicize it on the Net.

Another thing I realized very quickly was that the media hype regarding Subcomandante Marcos' alleged laptop Internet connection was vastly exaggerated. I have found no evidence to support any claim that any of the major Zapatista leaders personally access the Internet on a regular basis and participate in discussion groups or even merely upload their communiqués. It is rather people or groups that have an interest in the Zapatista rebellion or are in some way connected to it that publish these materials on the WWW. These sites do, however, go beyond mere publication or popularization of the cause. Most of them contain "action alerts" or similar pages which are designed to motivate the reader to donate time, food or money to the people of Chiapas and support the mission of the EZLN. Whether these activities be peace encampments or food shipments, they are traditional activism and nothing new to the WWW.

Nevertheless, there is much that is new to this form of "propaganda," a word that has many negative though sometimes unjustified connotations. The major innovations brought about by the publishing of information on the WWW can be listed as such:

A new audience can be reached. Those who would normally hear about the Zapatistas on CNN and forget about them a few minutes later might be intrigued by a WWW site they run across as they "Web-surf" and decide to read a little about this political cause. Others, those already interested in the Zapatistas, who do not have access to first-hand information or specialized sources such as political science journals, can instantly access EZLN communiqués as well as analyses, commentaries, and brief historical sketches on Chiapas or the rebels.

Censorship is circumvented. Maybe the most important aspect of making information available on the WWW is its virtual invulnerability. The Mexican government has no jurisdiction over WWW sites in the US where freedom of speech allows even groups that are deemed terrorists by some to publish their writings, be it in print, on television, or now on the World Wide Web. As long as a country stays connected to the Internet, it is impossible to restrict or even monitor the flow of information into and out of the nation. As mentioned before, the Internet "routes around censorship" a lofty yet accurate description. As Justin Paulson points out, he was unaware for a long time of the large number of "hits" his site had received from Mexico itself. Apparently, he has created a research and information tool for those who cannot get the whole story from the national media (see Internet Censorship News for more information).

One of the more commonly heard implications of this is related to the publication of obscene material on the Net. What is considered obscene in the US might be rather tame fare in some European countries. Similarly, what is considered politically "dangerous" in Mexico is covered by the first amendment in the United States. For example, China recently attempted to censor some of the Internet information flowing into that state, as well as control e-mailed reports coming out of the country. The fact that the Internet is not as easily censored as traditional media or even as conveniently monitored as traditional telephone lines has been irksome to the Chinese government, especially since the Tiananmen Square Massacre. So far, China has been spectacularly unsuccessful in damming the stream of data going in either direction (see CNN article for more information on Chinese censorship attempts). Because of the growing importance of the Internet as a tool for the newly created and somewhat more private businesses as well as the educational institutions, the government has been unwilling to shut down all Internet connection to the rest of the world. In an age of satellite telephony and fiber-optic cabling it is doubtful whether any such attempt would be wholly successful.[1]

New forms of expression are found. A third effect of the publication of political material on-line is the creation of entirely new forms of expression. While traditional media are confined to one or two forms of communication, such as newspapers having text and pictures or TV having mostly moving images and sound, the WWW offers all possible channels of information distribution. While some sites, such as mine, focus on text and images, others include moving pictures, animated graphics, and sounds. The most important new form of expression, however, is "interactivity," a buzzword of the 1990s. WWW pages are not static as is the text of a newspaper or even the most "hip" television or radio call-in show. Every user has control over which elements he or she wishes to access and which should be ignored. No newspaper, magazine, or television show can mimic the greatest power of hypertext, its ability to transfer the user to a related object (such as another WWW site) which may be created by a different author in another country. Other forms of interaction go even further. The WWW user can send e-mail to the creator of a page, a much more instant form of communication than a letter to the editor. Some pages, such as Acción Zapatista, are set up to automatically include commentary and suggestions left by readers. With the advent of "Java" and "Javascript," two new programming languages for the World Wide Web, there are no imaginable restrictions on the degree to which the creators and the users of a web page might interact with each other or with the computer (such as with databases or intelligent "information agents").

Instead of studying the Zapatistas, I could have chosen a variety of other political causes and reached the same conclusions. By publishing a cause on the Internet, a medium that is projected to reach a majority of households in the US in a few years, political activists can reach a new audience, provide censorship-free information to their supporters, and create new forms for presenting that information to the recipient.

The new medium of the Internet, however, is not a panacea for problems relating to the distribution of political material. Certain hurdles remain. One of them is availability of on-line storage. Currently, large amounts of WWW space are still rather expensive, making it costly for underfunded political or revolutionary organizations to spread their messages on the Net. As with the Zapatistas, most groups rely on the kindness or philanthropy of others in helping them bring their writings and publications onto the WWW. Another even more difficult problem involves the intended audience of political information. It would be impossible for the Zapatistas to organize their revolutionary activities over the Internet or even rally much support in Chiapas via on-line distribution of communiqués. The peasant Maya Indians in Chiapas largely do not have running water or electricity. Computers, modems, and Internet connections are virtually unheard-of. Harry Cleaver, once again a good source for information on this subject, especially stresses this problematic aspect of distributing political information. Until the Internet becomes more accessible to the poorer populations of the world, it can only be one leg in any large-scale propaganda or information campaign. It remains dubious whether the rather rosy predictions of Internet access to the masses will come through, especially since the now almost ancient technologies of telephony and television sitll do not reach a majority of the world's population.

What and how information is placed on the WWW will continue to be a topic of much discussion and research. Will there ever be a "global village" of free-flowing information? Nobody can say for sure, but it is clear already that among those with access to the net, an unprecedented revolution has taken place. People who would never have found each other via traditional channels of communication are exchanging e-mail on a daily basis. Information such as revolutionary manifestos that used to be distributed on hand bills or mouth-to-mouth is now accessible by people all over the world. Even though it might replace some of these outdated methods of rallying support, there are no technological guarantees on the Internet. Some nay-sayers have predicted an imminent Internet infarction, a collapse of the networks because of the sheer volume of traffic that is flowing over lines and connections originally designed to handle occasional traffic. One metaphor I have cautiously avoided comes in handy at this point, the now-trite image of the Information Superhighway. Just as the Interstate Highway System will survive because it is providing a now-essential service to the community, the Internet will survive the increase in traffic. There may be a period of slow-downs -- we're already experiencing some of those -- but new bypasses and multi-lane highways are being built at this moment. Thanks to a curious happenstance of history, a US military network designed to distribute vital information in times of war has become a peacetime vehicle for anti-government groups and organizations. The Internet continues to grow in an organic fashion, bringing diverse groups of people together. Apart from what some journalists would like us to believe, it is not merely a haven for pornography and make-money-fast schemes. The Internet is as diverse as its users and it will continue to broadcast dissident information within countries and across national boundaries. In this sense, the Net is a new global medium, an uncontrollable yet self-regulating entity which will occupy the minds of its users, the press, those groups or individuals with a message, and researchers like me for a long time to come.

[1] image from Tiananmen-1989.