Chapter 32 - Surveillance without Borders: The Case of Karen Refugees in Sheffield

Abstract

This chapter presents a case study of the Sheffield Karen community’s experience of surveillance and cyber conflict. It outlines how “local” conflicts can be manifested at great distances, targeting social media and phone hacking. In this case, a local conflict originated in a completely different locality. It also moved into a virtual world, one characterized by an “inverse reach,” allowing the oppressors to reach out and touch the oppressed by appropriating their channels of communication and using information gained though surveillance to attack them in specific ways that referenced aspects of the real conflict. Not only does this case provide insight into how new media is being used in cyber warfare, but it also highlights existing dynamics and divisions that are part of the real conflict. An account is provided from a participant observer’s point of view; the account also explores the background and the anatomy of one particular cyber-attack.