Abstract
<p>This article contributes to the emerging literature on digital encryption as a political issue by focusing on the way in which debates about encryption are embedded in a broader security discourse. Drawing on empirical material from Germany, this article shows how debates on encryption bring its ambiguous nature to the fore. Encryption is seen as both a threat and a source of protection, it thus becomes clear that technology only acquires its political meaning in discourse. Furthermore, I show that security is discussed in terms of uncertainty, risks and complexity. The article concludes by arguing that this prevailing idea of security as risk leads to security measures that attempt to deal with complexity by involving a variety of actors, making multi-stakeholder approaches as a solution more plausible.</p>
Highlights
I expand on this research by taking an explicit interest in encryption as a security issue. his paper uses insights from the ield of Critical security studies (Css) to understand how encryption is located within a broader security discourse
In line with interpretative research, I am not interested in trying to access the 'real intention', as the mental state of some person (Yanow, schwartzshea 2006), but rather the intersubjective meanings. such a perspective is in line with discourse studies that exist in many varieties (Fairclough 2013; Wodak 1989; Foucault 1972). he general assumption behind discourse research is that studying discourse reveals structures of meaning that are intersubjectively shared. studying texts reveals which knowledge resources are shared and, independently of personal beliefs, I can reconstruct the intersubjective meaning of texts (Keller 2007)
In this paper I solely focus on Germany. since my main interest is to show how encryption was presented as a security issue in popular discourse, I focused on texts published in mass media, and included statements by politicians and experts speaking in a public setting such as in
Summary
M his section presents the methodology and methods underlying this research. he aim of this article is to understand the way in which encryption is presented as a security issue. his requires less of an analysis of the technological features and more. M his section presents the methodology and methods underlying this research He aim of this article is to understand the way in which encryption is presented as a security issue. I am able to reconstruct what kind of assumptions about security underly the discourse on encryption He results presented here in this article are part of a larger project which analyzed the Us and German encryption discourse between 2012 and 2016 (cf Monsees 2017). Since my main interest is to show how encryption was presented as a security issue in popular discourse (rather than, for instance, among cryptologists), I focused on texts published in mass media, and included statements by politicians and experts speaking in a public setting such as in. C and the role of the main actors. hese questions focused my analysis and form the base of the results presented below
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