How Kazakhstan govt is using social media to tame rebellion

By 2013, the percentage of internet users had skyrocketed to 54% in Kazakhstan

The Conversation Global’s new series, Politics in the Age of Social Media, examines how governments around the world rely on digital tools to exercise power.

Until the mid-2000s, one would rarely associated the word “high-tech” with the country of Kazakhstan. Internet penetration hovered at 3% in 2005, and Kazakh authorities generally neglected the internet and social media.

Liberalisation of the media market in the early 2000s changed that. Usage of new media increased the number of internet providers and stimulated e-commerce. When the government, under president Nursutan Nazarbayev, in charge since