Contested Information Environment Framework for Assessing Networked Authoritarian Regimes

Information communication technology (ICT) policy developed to counteract efforts from networked authoritarian regimes to control the information environment must be informed by the information control techniques and strategies that those regimes have at their disposal. This article informs policymakers through the development of a Contested Information Environment Framework that outlines both individual information control techniques and overarching strategies employed by authoritarian regimes. The framework in this article was methodically built through an analysis of the discourse surrounding the efforts of authoritarian state actors to manipulate international and regional social groups by controlling or influencing aspects of information exchanges.