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| At the VII International Symposium of the Latin American Network of Surveillance, Technology, and Society Studies (LAVITS) |
| The Surveillance in the Majority World Network was part of the VII International LAVITS (Latin American Network of Surveillance, Technology, and Society Studies) Symposium in Rio de Janeiro, which took place under the theme “Tramar o presente: tecnopolíticas dissidentes e práticas do comum” (“Plotting the present: dissident technopolitics and common practices). Our network organized a workshop on August 27th at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The session was titled “Weaving New Common Knowledges & ‘Conspiring’ Alternative Worlds: A Workshop On Vocabularies Around Surveillance.” The workshop’s central aim was to examine how language shapes understandings of surveillance and to bring Global South concepts and vernacular terms into conversation with dominant frameworks, particularly those originating from the Global North. Read more here. |
| Research and Reports |
| Indigenous Data Sovereignty and the Governance of Artificial Intelligence: Toward Equitable Benefit for Indigenous Peoples In this article, five indigenous scholars – Jacob Prehn (Worimi), Bronwyn Carlson (Aboriginal), Maggie Walter (Palawa), Ray Lovett (Wongaibon / Ngiyampaa), and Bobby Maher (Yamatji, Noongar, Kija) – extend indigenous data sovereignty discourse to issues of AI governance. Rooted in the struggle over epistemic power, which is defined as the authority over knowledge production, indigenous data sovereignty in the age of AI concerns not just exerting agency within processes of data production and classification but also asserting control over the design of AI infrastructure and governance. Read more here. Digital Solidarity Aline Blankertz and Malte Engeler take on a rather ambitious provocation: that capitalism can be overcome through what they term digital solidarity. Beginning with an in-depth analysis of modern day capitalism in the age of digitization, their contribution transcends simple diagnostic accounts of the current political landscape by envisioning alternative visions for the future. This may well be a much-needed read, especially for those experiencing an increased sense of apathy or (digital) fatigue. Read more here (the book is only available in German but you can contact the authors for a translated version of the Introduction). Undoing Platform Humanitarianism In this cross-cutting book review, Aaron Martin and Quito Tsui present a plea for action to reevaluate the ways in which we approach the intersection of technology and the humanitarian crisis. The three recommended books – Taking Privacy Seriously by James B. Rule, Data Sovereignty edited by Anupam Chander and Haochen Sun, and Guardrails Guiding Human Decisions in the Age of AI by Urs Gasser and Victor Mayer-Schönberger – offer insight into how humanitarianism is not devoid of the politico-ethical issues that plague (surveillance) technology. Read more here. Algorithmic Governance and Postcoloniality Problematizing the universalizing tendencies of dominant literature on algorithmic governance, Ashwin Varghese motions towards the need to situate Kerala (India) government’s experimentation with AI traffic cameras within its unique postcolonial context. By applying the lens of postcoloniality, the article contends that anticolonial aspirations alone do not give birth to alternative native development; rather, it may only reproduce similar “hierarch[ies] of masters and servants.” Read more here. Generative AI and Atrocity Denial in War Masha Alimardani and Afsaneh Rigot recount how AI exacerbates traditional war tactics through the democratization of tools and the amplification of seeding doubt. Chronicling how denial and doubt have been weaponized with AI – the dismissal of evidence of war crimes in Iran, the denial of eyewitness testimony in Gaza, and the general distortion of reliable information – the authors warn that “[d]enial does not need to win the argument; it only needs to make the truth arrive to its audience damaged” for it to be an effective war strategy. Read more here. How Does Epistemic Violence Look? This editorial contribution to The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries calls on researchers to engage in reflexive practices of positionality. They question the outdated mode of knowledge production in Western academia that privileges the imperial center while continuing to marginalize the periphery. A must-read for those looking for practical solutions to implement within their research design. Read more here. AI Infrastructures and Sustainability This edited volume by Anne Mollen, Fieke Jansen, Sigrid Kannengießer, and Julia Velkova interrogates AI at the intersection of infrastructure and sustainability. Taking issue with both the techno-solutionist claim of AI and its promise of sustainable transformation as well as simplistic accounts of AI’s socio-ecological impact, the collection brings necessary nuance through its attention to AI’s entanglements of local and material relations. Read more here. Sensing the Surveillance State: Argentina’s Expanding Policies and Technologies of Mass Surveillance Amnesty International’s recent report, Sensing the Surveillance State, documents how Argentina is racking up its mass surveillance capabilities through the procurement of surveillance technologies accompanied by necessary institutional reform. Amnesty cautions that this signals a wider transformation at play: a global wave of techno-authoritarianism. Read more here. Made in Spain: Surveillance tech banned in EU booms in India This scathing report conducted by Investigate Europe reveals the problematic relationship between European surveillance companies and governments abroad: facial recognition software that is banned in Europe under the EU AI Act is widely sold and implemented in law enforcement and public safety in countries like India. What is most glaring is the fact that Herta Security, the Spanish firm under scrutiny, had received over “€3.3 million in EU research funding for projects involving ‘crowd behavior analysis’ and facial recognition.” European regulation seems to be pushing surveillance firms out South, without the accompanying oversight. Read more here. Iranian elite sportswomen: Docile yet defiant bodies In this article, Marjan Saffari and Christine Dallaire apply a Foucauldian framework to understand the governance of elite Iranian sportswomen which is heavily influenced by religion, state surveillance, and regime representation. Through interviews with a diverse group of women involved in elite sports in Iran, the article discusses how Iranian athletes navigate the highly governed and gendered space of women’s sports in Iran while highlighting everyday tactics of resistance. Read more here. |
| News |
| India’s CJP Protests Meet Internet Shutdowns and Pervasive Surveillance The recent student uprising in India has brought to light the structural prowess of the Indian government and its ability to quash descent. Amber Sinha details how this is achieved through two complementary strategies: preemptive internet shutdowns and ubiquitous surveillance. The power asymmetry is glaring. While citizen dissent is rendered invisible to the outside world through targeted network disruptions, citizens are made ‘hyper-legible’ to the state. Read more here. A Mexican surveillance giant you’ve never heard of is now watching the U.S. border The securitization of the US-Mexico border has been intensifying in recent years. Rest of the World investigators looked into the obscure Mexican technology firm Grupo Seguritech which has been rapidly amassing influence in the region and beyond. In the name of combatting gang violence, the company has not only partnered with local states, but it has recently signed an intelligence-sharing agreement with the state of Texas, raising privacy concerns. Read more here. Vietnam Tightens Online Speech Controls as Cyber Law Takes Effect Vietnam’s cybersecurity law is more than just a national security issue – it is chiefly a surveillance concern. Effective from July 1, 2026, Vietnam’s new cybersecurity law is meant to yield the Vietnamese government more control over online speech. The law has so far been enforced to fine online users for spreading misinformation in the form of memes. This is said to create significant chilling effects on the population, raising serious human rights concerns. Read more here. |
| Commentaries |
| The Internet Had a North Star. The UN’s Global Dialogue Made Clear AI Doesn’t The UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance held in Geneva illuminated the global cacophony of world order in terms of the misalignment of AI’s future. For all its quandaries, the Internet at least had a North Star, a guiding principle that steered the global community towards a shared goal of establishing interconnectedness regardless of geopolitical boundaries. In this contribution, Konstantinos Komaitis somberly reflects that the AI debate currently does not have similar ambitions which hinges on competing national interests. Read more here. Data Sovereignty Doesn’t Mean Data Isolationism The rhetoric of digital sovereignty has recently been employed by democratic and autocratic regimes alike. In this contribution, Luca Belli expounds upon the need to define digital sovereignty not as a synonym to autarky or isolationism, but as the “capacity to know how and why data are processed, by whom.” Yet, it is harmful when form dismisses accountability. Digital sovereignty should be more than just the proclamation of self-determination; it requires an integrated approach that involves context-specific solutions. Read more here. Fed up with Big Tech, communities turn to data collectives for control In this article, Rina Chandran sheds light on the anti-Big AI and anti-Big Tech movement that is growing from the margins. In direct opposition to the unauthorized extraction and usage of data by AI firms, data collectives are attempting to take back control by determining, for themselves, how and what their data is used for. Read more here. China’s Pivot on Global AI Arindrajit Basu writes that China’s AI diplomacy is moving beyond the mere exporting of infrastructure and technical standards to attempt to overhaul and restructure global norms and institutions of AI governance. As the US further retreats from the global stage due to budget constraints under the Trump administration, China is strengthening its ties with developing countries through the tightening of diplomatic relations. Read more here. Labor Power and the Role of Subcontracting in the AI Economy The exploitation of labor in the AI supply chain has been attracting increasing media attention – from data sweatshops in the Philippines to content moderation firms in Kenya. In this contribution, Sana Ahmad demystifies its logic: that the AI supply chain expounds on the structural asymmetry of capitalist accumulation where ‘down-stream-focused’ consumer harms are prioritized over ‘upstream labor rights’. Read more here. |
| Art and Interventions |
| Zine for a Global South Led Feminist Consortium India-based design and research lab strangerobot.design and feminist international human rights organization CREA joined forces to curate the “Zine for a Global South Led Feminist Consortium.” It is meant to be both a toolkit and a call to action for feminists organizing in the global south. The insights displayed are derived from years of fieldwork and organizing done by the members of the Our Voices, Our Future consortium (OVOF), whom they collaborated with. Read more here. Ghosts in the Cloud: A Southern Gothic Approach to Studying AI Infrastructure In this zine, Jen Liu and Sheila Tahir explore the lived reality of the consequences of the recent AI data center boom in the Southern states of the United States. Chronicling their trip to Richland Parish, Louisiana where Meta set up shop for their Hyperion data center, they reckon with the strikingly familiar stories of exploitation that plague the Native lands of Louisiana. Their ‘Southern Gothic’ approach to the study of AI infrastructure is about confronting the haunted histories of the past through its tangible remnants. Read more here. |
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| Surveillance in The MajorityWorld Research Network aims to expand the scope of surveillance studies to include non-Northern/Western discourses and practices. It is a place for exchange, collaboration, and activism against the undemocratic use of surveillance technologies. |