Unlike in Western Europe and most of the new EU member states, political communication in Belarus using new digital media is not discussed with reference to the specific possibilities offered by Web 2.0 for communication between politicians and the public or in relation to digital democracy. Rather, the Internet is considered primarily as a tool for bypassing the censoring in the traditional media (newspapers, radio, and television). This is because no conventional public space exists in Belarus in which people are free to express their political views.