Descrizione del progetto
La tecnologia digitale come strumento di repressione nei regimi autoritari
I regimi autoritari utilizzano la nuova tecnologia digitale per reprimere gli attivisti per i diritti. Il progetto DIGIACT, finanziato dall’UE, esaminerà in che modo i regimi autoritari applicano metodi repressivi digitali contro oppositori politici e attivisti per i diritti umani in Medio Oriente e Nord Africa (MENA, Middle East and Northern Africa). Il progetto studierà il rapporto esistente tra i regimi autoritari e la tecnologia digitale, nonché il modo in cui sia possibile proteggere i diritti fondamentali nel mondo digitale. Per raggiungere i suoi obiettivi, il progetto sta lavorando insieme a Law, Science, Technology & Society (LSTS) presso la Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgio.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
- social sciencesmedia and communicationsjournalism
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitymalicious software
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencescomputer securitydata protection
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil society
- social scienceslawhuman rightshuman rights law
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinatore
1050 Bruxelles / Brussel
Belgio