The project moved beyond the state of the art by providing detailed insights into the toolkit of digital transnational repression and its effects on diaspora communities. Digital technologies have given repressive regimes new tools to monitor and respond to the activities of political exiles and diaspora communities with greater scope and speed. Surveillance and other digital threats extend the reach of regime agents far into foreign countries, enabling them to invade the lives of targeted exiles, wherever they are. Moreover, surveillance, online harassment and disinformation campaigns are often intertwined with other methods of transnational repression, such as pressure on home-country families, kidnappings and even assassinations. Emigrants who often left their home countries to escape similar infringements on their personal and political liberties thus find themselves once again exposed to the arbitrary exercise of power. Activists’ reliance on digital media creates vulnerabilities and exposes sensitive information that state agents use to threaten dissidents abroad and their cross-border ties. Digital threats aim to unravel their networks and diffuse a silencing fear far beyond the immediate target person. The chilling effects of targeted surveillance and online harassment are exacerbated by the complexity of today’s digital platforms and applications. Project results provide a basis for further research into the responses of host governments to digital transnational repression. Both for academic and applied research, it will be important to understand how democratic host governments can counter digital threats against diaspora communities residing on their territories.
