Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence (Disruptive Technology and International Security)

Global adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict? In Repression in the Digital Age, Anita R. Gohdes addresses these questions, providing an original and in-depth look into the relationship between digital technologies and state violence. Drawing on large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis on Internet outages, Gohdes makes the case that digital infrastructure supports security forces in their use of violent state repression. More specifically, she argues that mass access to the Internet presents governments who fear for their political survival with a set of response options. When faced with a political threat, they can either temporarily restrict or block online public access or they can expand mass access to online information and monitor it to their own advantage. Surveillance allows security forces to target opponents of the state more selectively, while extreme forms of censorship or shutdowns of the Internet occur in conjunction with larger and more indiscriminate repression. As digital communication has become a bedrock of modern opposition and protest movements, Repression in the Digital Age breaks new ground in examining state repression in the information age. Cover Repression in the Digital Age: Surveillance, Censorship, and the Dynamics of State Violence Copyright Contents Acknowledgments List of Figures List of Tables 1. Introduction 1.1 Argument Scope conditions 1.2 Evidence Repression technology in Syria Internet infrastructure and usage in Syria and Iran Methodological approach Context and approach to researching this topic 1.3 Plan of the book 2. What are online controls, and how do they work? 2.1 Connecting to the Internet 2.2 Censorship Top-level censorship Shutdowns Slowing down access Domain-level censorship Blocking global access to individual domains Blocking domestic access to individual domains Content-level censorship Harassement and threats Distraction and drowning out content Requesting or ordering content removal Constrained choices 2.3 Monitoring content and people From content to metadata Mass and targeted surveillance techniques Summary 3. Theory 3.1 The role of information in repression The double-edged sword of online information control 3.2 The logic of online surveillance Identification Anticipation Intimidation Implications for coercive strategy 3.3 The logic of online censorship Restricting information exchange Hindering collective organization Depleting opposition capabilities Withholding infrastructure When censorship backfires Implications for coercive strategy Summary of theoretical expectations 4. Online controls and repression in Syria 4.1 Information control for regime stability 4.2 Digital politics pre-conflict 4.3 2011 uprising and repression 4.4 Digital politics following the uprising 4.5 Studying repression in Syria: data and measurement Operationalizing state repression Sources and data access Record-linkage Accounting for unreported violence Summary of empirical approach 5. Nationwide shutdowns and government offensives 5.1 Understanding full shutdowns Concerted repression Reputation saving Why nationwide shutdowns are likely to be infrequent Repressive implications of a shutdown Data 5.2 Internet shutdowns and documented violence 5.3 Underreporting during shutdowns Discussion 6. Internet accessibility and targeted violence 6.1 When is online surveillance useful? Observable implications 6.2 Regional Internet accessibility in Syria 6.3 Measuring the regime’s violent strategy 6.4 Subnational evidence 6.4.1 Regional armed group control 6.4.2 Regional ethnic group presence Discussion 7. Online controls and the protestrepression nexus in Iran 7.1 Elections and protest in 2009 7.2 Ramping up online controls after 2009 7.3 Protests and Internet shutdown, November 2019 7.3.1 Mass repression and intimidation 7.3.2 Controlling the narrative 7.3.3 Evading censorship after the shutdown Conclusion 8. Global evidence: Internet outages and repression 8.1 How to measure Internet outages A combined network measure 8.2 Internet outages and political institutions 8.3 Internet outages and state repression Summary 9. Conclusion 9.1 Summary of findings 9.2 The implications of tech-supported repression Implications of domestic cyber capabilities The battle for digital infrastructure 9.3 Resistance to online repression 9.4 Beyond state control: the role of private companies Notes Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 8 Bibliography Index Global adoption of the Internet has exploded, yet we are only beginning to understand the Internet's profound political consequences. Authoritarian states are digitally catching up with their democratic counterparts, and both are showing a growing interest in the use of cyber controls--online censorship and surveillance technologies--that allow governments to exercise control over the Internet. Under what conditions does a digitally connected society actually help states target their enemies? Why do repressive governments sometimes shut down the Internet when faced with uprisings? And how have cyber controls become a dependable tool in the weapons arsenal that states use in civil conflict? In Repression in the Digital Age, Anita R. Gohdes addresses these questions, and provides an original and in-depth look into the relationship between digital technologies and state violence. Drawing on large-scale analyses of fine-grained data on the Syrian conflict, qualitative case evidence from Iran, and the first global comparative analysis on Internet outages and state repression, Gohdes makes the case that digital infrastructure supports security forces in their use of violent state repression. More specifically, she argues that mass access to the Internet presents governments who fear for their political survival with a set of response options. When faced with a political threat, they can either temporarily restrict or block online public access or they can expand mass access to online information and monitor it to their own advantage. Surveillance allows security forces to target opponents of the state more selectively, while extreme forms of censorship or shutdowns of the Internet occur in conjunction with larger and more indiscriminate repression. As digital communication has become a bedrock of modern opposition and protest movements, Repression in the Digital Age breaks new ground in examining state repression in the information age.