After her 15-year premiership in Bangladesh and her fourth straight electoral victory, the 76-year-old Sheikh Hasina, generally known as the Asian Iron Lady, resigned and fled the country on August 5, 2024. Whereas the student protests main as much as this occasion garnered worldwide media consideration, what was additionally fascinating was how Bangladesh, as soon as the champion of democracy and digitalization in the International South, turned an exemplar of backsliding democracy.
In hindsight, it’s clear that the federal government that promised equitable distribution of technologies and the creation of a Smart Bangladesh primarily based on extra clear governance and related residents additionally engaged in electoral misconduct, blatant nepotism, and relentless concentrating on of the opposition, not simply inside the nation however throughout its borders as nicely. Digital instruments usually harnessed to foster transparency and participation in democracy will also be co-opted and weaponized by regimes for surveillance, management, and repression, each inside and past borders.
Regime elites suppressing dissent past state borders is called transnational repression. Freedom House coined the time period Digital Transnational Repression (DTR) to attract consideration to the truth that regime elites more and more use digital instruments to amplify their attain throughout borders to watch, intimidate, and silence dissidents. On the middle of latest developments in Bangladesh and different backsliding democracies, we talk about the invisible hand of digital instruments in amplifying transnational repression.
Whereas extra outstanding episodes of transnational repression, like arbitrary arrests and assassinations by infamous authoritarian regimes corresponding to China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, caught the eye of the worldwide group, largely missed are cases of digital censorship and surveillance, nationally and transnationally, by backsliding democracies like Bangladesh.
Digital transnational repression consists of digital surveillance, deployment of spy ware, phishing, and hacking assaults, doxxing, on-line harassment, and disinformation campaigns, all of which violently threaten focused people, usually forcing on them self-censorship and isolation from social media. Though transnational repression shouldn’t be new, the arrival of digital instruments has launched a paradigmatic shift by increasing its repertoire, lowering its value, and amplifying its proliferation, and as such, it deserves particular consideration as an extension of weakening freedom and rights in backsliding democracies.
DTR is greatest understood in the broader context of the decline of democracy and the concomitant rise of well-liked discontent, digital instruments, and the attain and impression of platforms. Hasina, for instance, needed to watch and intimidate her critics each inside and past the borders of Bangladesh. So, she instructed Bangladesh’s abroad diplomats to “be vigilant” in opposition to Bangladeshi dissenters overseas and tried to misuse worldwide legislation enforcement instruments in opposition to them.
From the angle of the International North, DTR additionally has severe implications for his or her critical infrastructure, elevating questions on their accountability in safeguarding the lives and liberty of activists and dissidents looking for refuge in their jurisdiction. Extra broadly, DTR impacts debates on citizenship rights, immigration, freedom of speech and expression, and the technological infrastructure of digital platforms. How can host governments and digital platforms that host these dissenters safeguard their rights?
Artificial Intelligence is Altering Digital Transnational Repression
We argue that rising applied sciences, notably synthetic intelligence (AI) and, subsequently, generative AI, have additional reworked the panorama of transnational repression. AI unleashed a silent revolution in DTR by exponentially amplifying its attain and impression. AI-powered content material moderation instruments, as utilized by Iran, for instance, make it simpler for regimes to manage the narrative and suppress opposition with out ever resorting to pricey human intervention.
Integrating AI applied sciences may make spy ware like Pegasus considerably more difficult for privateness and cybersecurity. The most outstanding case related to Pegasus is the homicide of Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist who brazenly criticized the Saudi regime. Different examples embrace Ethiopian refugee Tadesse Kersmo, tracked by the Ethiopian authorities by way of his pc through one other comparable industrial intrusion equipment referred to as FinFisher, and the abduction of Paul Rusesabagina, the real-life hero of Lodge Rwanda and critic of the Rwandan authorities. In concept, it isn’t unreasonable to count on that integrating AI into spywares like Pegasus might allow extra refined information filtering, customized concentrating on, and even predictive evaluation.
There are additionally examples in the broader surveillance business the place AI has been built-in into pre-existing surveillance techniques, most notably in use in China’s AI-powered facial recognition applied sciences. Certainly, one of probably the most important traits in AI-driven transnational repression is that 51 percent of superior democracies additionally deploy AI surveillance techniques. The Artificial Intelligence Global Surveillance (AIGS) Index reveals that AI has supercharged digital transnational repression by enabling unprecedented ranges of state surveillance by way of facial recognition, habits evaluation, and real-time information processing, as seen employed in Xinjiang to watch and management the Uighur inhabitants.
But probably the most impactful could also be Generative AI, because it additional will increase the pace, scale, and unfold of DTR. In November 2022, the launch of ChatGPT disrupted the AI community, notably as a result of LLMs, corresponding to GPT-3 by OpenAI, can now create novice content material, which isn’t solely difficult to distinguish from real content material but in addition troublesome to watch given the absence of clear rules that maintain creators accountable.
The fast creation of lots of and hundreds of faux content material by generative AI amplifies surveillance, censorship, and disinformation to an unprecedented stage. Repressive regimes can now simply generate convincing text, deep faux movies, and fabricated information articles and inundate social media with propaganda that drowns out and discredits dissenting voices. Tracing these items of content material again to their creators takes huge assets, capability, and technological instruments that focused dissidents and activists don’t typically possess.
The addition of generative AI to the toolbox of repressive governments additionally threatens democratic norms like by no means earlier than by increasing the manufacturing of misinformation that erodes public belief in establishments, distorts the electoral course of, and endangers fundamental rights and safety of focused people. Researchers level out that Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and China are already utilizing generative AI to manipulate information, spreading false narratives and discrediting opposition voices, which erode the free circulation of data, a cornerstone of democratic societies.
As well as, the open-source nature of generative AI has ‘democratized’ entry, and their quick cross-platform unfold permits people with minimal technical abilities to launch harassment campaigns independently and discreetly of state infrastructure. Prior to now, such operations required intensive planning, experience, and assets. Nevertheless, the lowered value now permits numerous non-state rogue actors to take part in DTR. For example, in 2023, undercover journalists recorded a workforce of Israeli contractors generally known as ‘Team Jorge’ who claimed to be utilizing refined disinformation strategies, together with faux social media accounts and AI-driven methods, to affect political outcomes in 30 international locations.
In Nigeria’s February 2023 election, state-affiliated teams and political events reportedly hired social media influencers to unfold false narratives about their opponents and ran troll farms to harass and discredit opposition voices on-line. Notably, this occurred regardless of Nigeria’s Nationwide Info Expertise Growth Company (NITDA) having launched the Code of Practice for Interactive Laptop Service Platforms, which mandates that web intermediaries take away illegal content material inside 48 hours—probably curbing free expression. This illustrates how legal guidelines governing digital platforms may be vaguely written and biased in opposition to residents, complicating the safety of dissidents’ rights from repressive governments, even throughout borders.
Thus, generative AI introduces a brand new layer of menace by way of the creation of deepfakes and artificial media, which regimes can weaponize to discredit activists, unfold misinformation, or create cast content material to undermine the legitimacy of democratic actions overseas. From customized phishing campaigns to exposing the id of activists, AI instruments may craft extremely focused social engineering assaults by automating the manufacturing of false or manipulative narratives at a breakneck pace.
DTR is threatening freedom globally as backsliding democracies are more and more utilizing such practices to train management over dissident expatriates. Whereas the issues round disinformation interfering with election outcomes in the USA deserve consideration, additionally it is vital to bear in mind numerous different methods new tech-enabled disinformation is increasingly serving authoritarian ends in the remaining of the world and the way these dangers are more likely to intensify in the approaching years in view of the rising use of social media platforms.
The authorized framework governing generative AI and digital harassment is considerably underdeveloped worldwide. Even in instances the place the artificial content material may be traced again to its creator, the content material creator is probably not held accountable in the absence of legal guidelines and rules, or potential guidelines have to be balanced with constitutional protections at no cost speech. Regardless of high-profile instances corresponding to a deepfake used to mimic the voice of the present American president, Joe Biden, to discourage main voters in New Hampshire, — accountability is unclear even in the US authorized system. To handle this authorized void, governments worldwide must implement rules on AI-generated content material that tackle probably the most harmful harms, set up clear traces of accountability for creators, and promote worldwide cooperation to standardize legal guidelines governing digital harassment.
Host international locations’ governments, largely international locations in the International North, additionally should strengthen legal frameworks to protect dissidents, providing asylum and guaranteeing authorized recourse for these focused by overseas governments. With out elevated training and collaboration with legislation enforcement and intelligence companies to identify and disrupt overseas state-sponsored harassment, together with cyber threats and intimidation campaigns, governments cannot eradicate authoritarian incursions into their home jurisdiction.
Nevertheless, home legal guidelines in isolation are insufficient to handle the distinctive challenges posed by DTR. Even when there may be proof of state involvement in digital harassment, the worldwide authorized framework presents restricted recourse. Sovereign immunity and geopolitical concerns usually hinder accountability, permitting states to behave with impunity.
Tech firms additional play a critical role in countering digital transnational repression by strengthening their belief and security, in addition to cybersecurity protocols to detect and forestall assaults on dissenting voices and state-sponsored cyberattacks. They will implement extra constant and strict content material moderation insurance policies to swiftly take away dangerous content material, corresponding to focused harassment or disinformation campaigns geared toward susceptible teams.
Most significantly, we advocate that the dangers of digital transnational repression should be mitigated not simply in authorities corridors however on the grassroots and digital rights stage by civil society organizations (CSOs), which play a vital function in defending digital rights and guaranteeing democratic resilience. CSOs, by educating the general public, monitoring authorities actions, and advocating for stronger digital protections, can function a main protection in opposition to authoritarian ways that search to undermine democratic freedoms.