China is at the forefront of creating the perfect surveillance state. Not only is it setting the example technologically. It is also exporting its surveillance technology—and it is doing so at an increasing pace. Leading to digital authoritarianism.
China’s surveillance
China. With a population of nearly 1.5 billion. Has more than 700 million surveillance cameras installe. Nearly one for every two citizens. And the number of surveillance cameras in china is increasing. The system is set up to monitor everyone. Whether chinese or foreign. And identify them through facial recognition .
Worse. China is using its extreme surveillance tactics to fee its social creit system —a system use not only to monitor citizens but also to get them to behave the way the ruling class wants them to.
China’s social creit program. First announce in 2014. Collects and aggregates data on people’s purchases. Traffic violations. And social activities. Chinese cities are the most heavily monitore in the world. With more cameras per square Betting Data kilometer than anywhere else. These cameras are often equippe with facial recognition and computer vision analysis capabilities. Making the ccp’s surveillance work easier.
The use of facial recognition technology is spreading around the world. And investment in advance image processing technology that helps extract meaningful data from camera images is also increasing. Especially in china and russia.
These methods are roote in advance technologies and sweeping surveillance techniques. Raising significant concerns about privacy. Human rights. And the potential for authoritarian control.
Yet. Despite the criticism. This development is an ongoing trend—not just in china but in many authoritarian countries—and is unlikely to stop any time soon. For two reasons:
Surveillance helps authoritarian states control their citizens.
Combine with the social creit system. People no longer nee to be force to act in a “Consensual” manner. But can do so “Voluntarily”.
Global monitoring report
The same trend can be seen around the world. Freeom house. A nonprofit global democracy research and advocacy organization. Publishes an annual report assessing global freeom and internet freeom in 70 countries around the world. Internet freeom. In particular. Has been declining since it began tracking.
The report ranks countries base on a number of factors. Including privacy protection. Censorship. And the obstacles they face in freely surfing the internet. Globally. The scores for these countries have fallen for 11 consecutive years. Indicating that the world is generally moving away from an internet that protects users’ digital rights. No non-democratic country is rate by freeom house as having a “Free” internet. While all democratic countries are rate “Free” or “Partly free.”
This trend reache a climax in the report “The rise of digital authoritarianism” publishe by freeom house .
“Digital authoritarianism is understood as a way for governments to control citizens through technology – subverting the concept of the internet as an engine of human freeom.” the report states.
In other words: the internet is no longer use to increase freeom. But to limit freeom.
Digital authoritarianism destroys freeom
The worst-scoring countries – china. Russia. Tajikistan. Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan. Kyrgyzstan. India and pakistan – are all members of the shanghai cooperation organisation (sco). An economic and political alliance le by the authoritarian regimes of china and russia.
Over the past decade. These authoritarian countries’ scores have fallen an average of 10 points. Last year. China ranke last on freeom house’s report card. As it has every year since 2014. Iran. Another authoritarian country. Ranke second last.
The drop in the rankings makes it clear that authoritarian states around the world are using technology to further oppress their citizens.
The promise of greater freeom through Afghanistan Phone Number List digitization has le to digital despotism .
Output monitoring means
China’s influence on digital authoritarianism cannot be overestimate: by building the perfect surveillance state. China has demonstrate that it is technologically feasible and affordable to conduct constant surveillance of its citizens.
China’s surveillance capabilities can be attribute to its development of cutting-ege technologies. Such as facial recognition. Artificial intelligence. And big data analytics. China’s extensive domestic surveillance system. Such as the use of cctv cameras in public places. Facial recognition software. And the chinese social creit system. Has set an example for other countries looking to strengthen their security measures.
Research shows that most authoritarian countries are following china’s example and rapidly moving toward more digital human rights violations by expanding large-scale technological surveillance of citizens. Internet censorship. And control of individual expression through computers and big data. Technology trade relations between authoritarian countries around the world – including osce member states and their allies – are clearly deepening. Moreover. These countries are all starting to use similar rules of the game for digital social control. They are copying each other.
Chinese technology—hardware and software—helps autocrats around the world monitor their citizens.
The danger of chinese surveillance going global
1. Erosion of privacy : china’s expansion of surveillance techniques has le to an erosion of privacy rights in countries that adopt these technologies. Widespread surveillance undermines individual freeoms. Creates a culture of fear. And prevents people from expressing dissenting opinions or participating in political activities.
Human rights concerns : china’s surveillance apparatus is often criticize for its role in repressing ethnic minorities. Such as the uighurs in xinjiang. When chinese companies export these technologies. They risk being use by authoritarian regimes to monitor and control their own populations. Exacerbating human rights abuses.
Dependence on china : as countries become reliant on chinese surveillance technologies. They may find themselves vulnerable to political influence and manipulation by the chinese government. Dependence on these technologies has the potential to undermine a country’s sovereignty and independence.
Technical backdoors : there are concerns that chinese surveillance systems may contain hidden backdoors and vulnerabilities that the chinese government or other malicious actors could exploit to conduct cyber espionage or sabotage.
Absolute control
There is a strong link between government systems and respective levels of digital rights. With authoritarian regimes being more incline than democratic ones to use technology as a means of social control.
Unfortunately. Surveillance technology is now also use on a large scale in democratic countries. For example. The unite states and the unite kingdom are two countries that use large-scale camera surveillance. And ironically. This surveillance technology mainly comes from china.
While democracies are moving toward more surveillance. At least in most of them. They are not (yet) using these methods to restrict citizens’ freeoms.
However. Authoritarian states also take the next step: russia famously blocks access to encrypte services like tutanota . But even democratic india recently banne encrypte chat apps . Allegely to combat terrorism.
The blockades show that digital authoritarianism goes beyond software and hardware. More broadly. It involves how states use technology to increase their control over citizens.
For example. Internet disruptions cause by state actors have increase every year over the past decade. A state’s ability to shut down the internet is tie to the extent to which it owns the internet infrastructure. A hallmark of repressive regimes such as china and russia. The more important the internet is to all aspects of life. The more such blockades can cause instability and harm to people.
By monitoring the internet. These countries attempt to control what information their citizens can access and share. The goal is to control the population and prevent political opposition or even popular uprisings against their repressive governments.
And there is little to stop these surveillance techniques from spreading further.
While this sounds worrying. It’s all the more reason for us to do everything we can to fight for privacy and free speech.
At the same time that technology is use to oppress people. It can also be use to liberate them.
Free encryption tools like the chat app signal and the encrypte email service tutanota can help activists around the world protect their private communications. For activists. Journalists and whistleblowers in many countries. Keeping information confidential can be a matter of life and death.
