Policy Department, Directorate-General for External Policies
While not fully representative, the choice of country examples aims to offer varied illustrations of trends and an opportunity to examine the application of different EU tools at country level. Overall, six countries from four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America) were selected as primary choices for more in-depth exploration. Some other criteria included participation in the Media4Democracy Technical Assistance Facility, application of EU foreign policy tools, and the presence of different trends in the employment of digital technologies for repression and social control. In terms of its limitations, the research was centred on situations outside of the EU and on the EU’s external policy framework, referring to EU internal policies and regulations only where relevant for bilateral and multilateral relations. Also, given its global geographic coverage (minus the EU), the study cannot claim to be exhaustive in terms of its review of trends and applications of the EU foreign policy toolbox. To address this, a deliberate effort was made to balance a broad analysis that included countries representing different continents and regions with attention to the areas where the most problems lie (i.e. countries, which lead the way, in terms of using digital technologies for repression and social control). These include, in particular, regimes in China and Russia, but also in other states and under other governments, which either follow in their footsteps, or implement their own agendas reliant on digitally enabled repression and/or social control.
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Trends in the use of digital technologies for repression and social control
The following chapter will map the current global trends related to the use of new technologies for repression and social control. It will present an overview of how digital repression and social control have evolved in recent years, and how they currently work across the world – in particular, which regimes engage in such activities, and using what methods and tools. It will also explain how these efforts impact human rights, identify the most targeted or vulnerable groups, and highlight what the role of private sector is in the context of this phenomenon.
2.1
Expansion of widespread biometric surveillance and algorithmic decision-making
2020 has brought an unprecedented rapid upscaling of new technologies that support digital surveillance, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Governments across the world have deployed a range of new surveillance measures30, often turning to advanced AI 31 and big data technologies, used not only for enhanced monitoring, but also increasingly to replace human judgment with algorithmic decision-making. Applications of these technologies may affect a particularly broad spectrum of human rights, ranging from the right to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and the right to non-discrimination to a number of social and economic rights, such as the right to health, work, and social security. While in principle all regions have witnessed the expansion of tech-focused responses to the pandemic, the countries that have been leaders in harnessing the most sophisticated technologies to combat COVID-19 were often the same states where intrusive, data-driven surveillance systems were in place even before the COVID-19 crisis began. The pandemic has therefore served as a catalyst for expanding those systems, while also preserving many pre-existing problems related to their use.
Privacy International, 'Tracking Global responses to COVID-19', 2020. AI is a broad concept used in policy discussions to refer to many different types of technology. To date, there is no single definition of AI accepted by the scientific community. Definitions used by international organizations also vary. A comprehensive document on the definition of AI has been published by the High-Level Expert Group on AI mandated by the European Commission. See: AI HLEG, 'A Definition of AI: Main Capabilities and Disciplines', 2019. 30 31
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