DIGIACT · Digital Authoritarian Practices: Internet Surveillance and Repression against Transnational Activist Networks
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2019-12-01 → 2022-03-02
- EU contribution
- €178,320
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Digital Authoritarian Practices: Internet Surveillance and Repression against Transnational Activist Networks
DIGIACT investigated forms of digitally enabled information control, surveillance and repression against political activists, journalists and human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who reside in the European Union. It analyzed how threats to freedom of expression and privacy of transnational activists emerge and spread in an environment of rapidly evolving digital technologies. The research studies the motivations and capabilities of the regimes behind the threats, the effects on targeted communities, and the implications both on a normative (international human rights law and other legal frameworks) and practical level (risk mitigation and capacity building). DIGIACT contributed to a) concept building on the relationship between digital technologies and authoritarian politics, and b) the debate on how to protect fundamental norms and rights in the digital age.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Transnational advocacy networks play an important role in exposing rights violations and undermining media censorship under authoritarian regimes. Yet, repressive states increasingly resort to surveillance, malware attacks, online harassment and disinformation campaigns to compromise transnational civil society activists and mute their voices. DIGIACT investigates forms of digitally enabled information control, surveillance and repression against political activists, journalists and human rights defenders from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) who reside in the European Union. The project provides an in-depth analysis of how threats to freedom of expression and privacy of transnational activists emerge and spread in an environment of rapidly evolving digital technologies. The research studies the motivations and capabilities of the regimes behind the threats, the effects on targeted communities and their strategies of resistance, and the implications both on a normative (international human rights law and other legal frameworks) and practical level (risk mitigation and capacity building). With this research agenda, DIGIACT aims to contribute to a) concept building on the relationship between digital technologies and authoritarian politics, and b) the debate on how to protect fundamental norms and rights in the digital age. To accomplish these goals, the project is embedded in the research group on Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) at VUB where the applicant will receive training in theoretical and legal approaches to surveillance, privacy and data protection in the context of digital technologies.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL · Bruxelles / BrusselCoordinatorBelgium
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union