Beijing’s cyber operations are largely conducted in the shadows. But a recent leak has shed light on how the state is working with private companies to target online activism.
It’s pretty common to find people who are apathetic about their data being harvested and funnelled into unknown corners. But that’s usually because they don’t know what’s at stake.
For more than a decade, the Russian government has been putting teeth into its doctrine of ‘digital sovereignty’ by steadily increasing censorship of content and control over internet access.
While online communities may not fully address the isolation LGBTQ youth face in-person, they can serve as an important source of social support and a springboard for civic engagement.
Public criticism of the Chinese government’s handling of coronavirus shows that the Chinese people can overcome both strict censorship and a gaping class divide when they get angry enough.
Private companies – many based in the US – are blocking access to their websites from particular countries around the world. It’s contributing to a splintering of the global internet.
Cracking down on extremism online won’t solve the problem of extremist violence, will inevitably censor speech that’s important to protect and risks harming political dissidents and democracy itself.
Bots have not just been used in the US, but also in Australia, the UK, Germany, Syria and China. To what extent – and how – are they affecting political discourse?
Professor, School for the Future of Innovation in Society & School of Computing, Informatics and Decision Systems Engineering, Arizona State University
Research Fellow in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), and the Emerging Technologies Lab, Monash University