Techno-Politics as Network(ed) Struggles

Laura Fichtner

doi:10.3390/isis-summit-vienna-2015-s3033

Abstract

Techno-Politics as Network(ed) Struggles

Highlights

At least since the NSA disclosures of 2013th “Summer of Surveillance”, internet surveillance and informational privacy and security have received widespread public attention and become a political concern for many
Instead of focusing on regulation applied to technological practices from outside, I investigate the socio-political dimensions of the internet infrastructure itself and the politics of concrete technological surveillance and countersurveillance practices
My question is: How do surveillance and counter-surveillance technologies operate as a form of techno-politics within the internet infrastructure? The answer to this question can enhance our understanding of the impact on the political landscape, which ubiquitous information technologies and their steady diffusion into every realm of our lives have

Summary

Introduction

At least since the NSA disclosures of 2013th “Summer of Surveillance”, internet surveillance and informational privacy and security have received widespread public attention and become a political concern for many. Taking the disclosures as a starting point, I follow up on this development and inquire into the techno-politics of surveillance and counter-surveillance. I show how data infrastructures are regulated through policy, but can function as techno-political means which bring about a specific socio-technical structure. My question is: How do surveillance and counter-surveillance technologies operate as a form of techno-politics within the internet infrastructure? Technological infrastructures and networks are of central importance to my research, as contemporary ICTs and ICT surveillance technologies operate in and through networks rather than as single artifacts. In my research I explore how surveillance technologies exploit the internet’s inherent hierarchies and operate through the global hubs that emerged within the infrastructure. Counter-surveillance technologies try to sabotage the centralized surveillance network this establishes. The two antagonists are opposed in the way they use the network and are involved in a struggle over the network’s very structure and technological design

Methods

Results

Conclusion