Download This PaperPanopticons and Closing Civic Space: The Building Blocks of Digital Authoritarianism
Decoding Digital Authoritarianism. eds Ziyaad Bhorat and Martin Rauchbauer. Berggruen Institute, 2023
10 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2023
Date Written: May 17, 2023
Abstract
Digital authoritarianism typically refers to the use of technology and digital platforms by governments to control, monitor, and manipulate public opinion and information. It often focuses on tactics -- such as censorship, surveillance, propaganda, and manipulation of online content – to the exclusion of the underlying socio-technical infrastructure. However, this is a shortcoming that must be addressed as the availability of advanced technologies such as generative AI, ever increasing computational power, and insatiable datafication are creating new potentials that will turbocharge digital authoritarianism. These increasingly dominant technologies exacerbate the potential for digital authoritarianism and predictive manipulation because the economic and political incentives are not aligned with democratic or liberal emancipatory values. This essay Presents the risk complex digital infrastructures pose to democratic values, arguing that extraordinary advances in computing power, and ‘datafication’ have led to: i) A misalignment of political and economic values perverting the public sphere through disinformation, propaganda, and harassment; ii) New digital national ID cards, social credit systems, and other forms of surveillance that close civic space, increase human rights abuses, and make anonymity impossible.
Keywords: digital authoritarianism, digital democracy, politics, cyber, AI, generative AI, political science, media, information
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