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As digital technologies become increasingly pervasive, the authoritarian governments of the region face the danger of descending into totalitarianism as they pursue absolute security. This situation is exacerbated by political structures that prioritize regime security over individual privacy.
Growing up in Uganda during the 1990s, almost every girl aspired to become educated and influential like the women role models that we had. They were a handful of those women given that the many years (1971- 1986) of civil insurgence had left many women without formal education. The educated women were few but very influential. Winne Byanyima, the Executive Director of UNAIDS was one of them. She was an engineer, a pilot and formidable politician. She represented what the Beijing conference of 1995 stood for, and we looked up to her and the others. Strong, empowered and educated women.
Last summer, it was saddening to read an editorial in the UN’s digital magazine -Africa Renewal magazine. The editorial was written by Byanyima and she was calling upon the UN leadership to address racial discrimination against people of colour within the UN. She wrote, “Haven’t we had enough of inequality and discrimination? Enough of structural racism and systematic injustice? While denouncing racism in the world, we are aware that systemic racism exists even in the United Nations system, negatively impacting black, brown and other persons of colour, particularly Africans and Afro descendants.”
She explained that the power imbalances within the UN had been a result of the global organisation having been established during the colonial era, thus, power structures had been defined long before. She added, “At the same time, the foundation of the United Nations is the conviction that all human beings are equal and entitled to live without fear of persecution.”
Are we all equal?
In a world where racism is on the rise, one would expect the UN to be at the fore front, spearheading an end to the vice. If accomplished people like Byanyima can be racially discriminated against by their peers, one wonders when we shall all be equal. She wrote, “We, international civil servants under the United Nations flag know that racism will not be eradicated overnight. Nevertheless, we are individually and collectively committed to effectively contribute towards the realization of an equal and just world where brutal manifestations of blatant anti-black racism are eliminated.”
Issues of equality go beyond race. My second blog post highlighted what researchers on the far right had experienced. It was clear that male researchers are welcomed and respected by the far rights activists unlike their female counterparts that are considered less knowledgeable (by far right respondents) because of their sex. Volk (2023) describes far right as being radically and extremely right, as well as grounded in beliefs that people are not equal.
Is the world order falling apart; Antagonism towards the West and Left
The rise of the far right and resistance to the Left
According to Futàk-Campbell (2020), European far-right parties in Netherlands (Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid), France (Front National), Germany (German Alternative für Deutschland) and Austria (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs) have come together with a united front and strive to have strong connections with Russia. Together, these parties regard the European Union establishment as a shared enemy. They regard Russia as their important partner. “Beyond certain ideological commonalities, however, the alliance between Moscow and the Western European right-wing populists is primarily functional: the two sides provide each other with legitimacy on the political stage. This bond has also allowed the populist right in Europe and Russia to engage in realizing a common domain. As part of their anti-Brussels and anti-establishment agenda, Russia provides a crucial platform for a variety of populist right-wing politicians.”
According to Volk (2023), there is growing resistance to the Left in Germany and that the far right have branded the left as a dictatorial. She discusses the Dresden-based ‘Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident’ (PEGIDA) in Germany. “PEGIDA deploys controversial reinterpretations of regional, national, and European history to sustain the populist master frame of ‘resistance against dictatorship’, articulating the antagonism between ‘the people’ and ‘the elites’ as a longstanding struggle of democracy against leftist totalitarianism.”
Volk explains that far right activists in Germany compare the existing political structure with that of Nazi Third Reich or the communist GDR. And, to them, the Federal Republic as having come short of being a liberal democracy leaning towards authoritarianism.
Ethiopia and the BRICS factor
In my first blog post, I wrote about how African governments were suppressing digital accessibility for their nationals, especially during civil protests and civil resistance. I highlighted that the International Journalists’ Network (IJNet) had reported on Sudan and Ethiopia as having had the most internet shutdowns on the continent. That activists had pointed out that the shutdowns had facilitated governments to hide human rights abuses and imprisonment of journalists. The Ethiopian government had instituted an internet repeatedly shutdown internet during the Tigray war.
The civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has tarnished the image of Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Abiy Ahmed. Ahmed received a Nobel peace prize in 2019 and has been called a war monger. It has also been reported that there were dire human rights violations during the war. Consequently, Ethiopia’s relations with the West have weakened. During this year, Ethiopia sought to join the BRICS.
Ethiopia and several other African countries have over the past decade developed constrained relations with the west due to the fact that most African governments have turned authoritarian. The rampant human rights violations across Africa have received criticism from the west. In retaliation, the African governments have asserted their sovereignty and argued that they are independent countries and portrayed themselves as ‘patriots’ of their respective countries. The African leaders have gone ahead and built new relations and aligned themselves with countries within the BRICS bloc. Consequently, we have witnessed increased Chinese and Russian presence and influence in Africa. Notably, 49 African countries were represented in St. Petersburg this year for the second Russia-Africa summit.
However, Eriksen (2014) argues that globalisation cannot be termed as “economic imperialism” or “westernisation” because economic dominance keeps fluctuating between nations from time to time. He commends globalisation for having boosted the promotion of human rights across the globe.
According to Natalie Sauer from The Conversation, BRICS have ‘Non-interference policy’ where countries do not meddle into the sovereignty of other states. “Ethiopia may be interested in the political cover that joining BRICS would provide. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has received political cover from China, and some would argue from South Africa. The Ethiopian government may be keen to avoid human rights governance conditions attached to new loans, aid or debt relief from the west.”
Pieterse (2018) argues that BRICS have always aimed at breaking away from developed countries and that member countries have exhibited that at different occasions where they antagonise the west through “loud defiance and confrontation.”
The Conversation’s Sauer says, “Joining the BRICS club would show that his government is still politically acceptable to some major world powers…would make the country more geostrategically important, perhaps encouraging western powers to downplay human rights concerns, as they have in the past in the interests of “realpolitik.”
Internet to Autocrats
According to Volk (2023), PEDIGA has used its online resources to spread the message that Germany has weakened because of “European politics, political mismanagement, immigration and social change.”
I discussed in my first blog post how Sub Saharan African governments had taken a leaf from the Arab Spring where online conversations mobilised masses in Tunisia. I pointed out that these governments do not underplay the role of online media in empowering the masses, and that they resort to digital suppression through internet shutdowns to silence their nationals in times of protests and civil resistance. They do this claiming that the internet restrictions uphold security and stop the spread of false information. However, International Journalists’ Network (IJNet) had argued that the restrictions are actually meant to control the spread of information and that they facilitate these governments to hide human rights abuses and imprisonment of journalists.
Jones (2023) portrays internet shutdowns and social media blockage as “cruder” ways that have also taken place in the Middle East. “Iran and Türkiye, for example, have shown a willingness to block access to social media and even the internet during political instability. So while states generally are willing to engage in internet censorship, they do not necessarily all do it in the same way, pointing to shades of digital repression.” Additionally, Tufekci (2017) says the internet shutdown in Egypt during the 2011 riots made it difficult for people to communicate within the country, but they were able to beat the system and access the rest of the world and tell their story, something that backfired on the government.
Jones (2023) explains that the digital technology revolution had been successive in political mobilisation and fighting autocratic rule in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). That however, today things have changed for the region as digital technology has created digital “superpowers,” and is currently being used for digital authoritarianism, where the governments there are trailing and intimidating citizens as well as spreading propaganda. “Personalism and authoritarian populism are powerful dynamics in the Middle East, more so than single-party rule as seen in other authoritarian contexts such as China. Hypernationalism, often demonstrated through symbolic displays of loyalty to leaders, has resulted in a lot of Twitter content. While very real, these new nationalisms, especially in the Gulf, have been spurred on by thousands of fake accounts.”
He describes digital superpowers as countries that have the ability to execute digital media dominance within their jurisdiction, regionally, and internationally. He adds that autocratic leadership in the Middle East and Northern Africa thrives on foreign support, thus they need international media attention.
Conclusion
Today’s digital age makes it difficult for governments to regard internet shutdowns as sustainable because they are prone to backfire and cause even much more visibility to what the governments are trying to cover up, Tufekci (2017). In the blogpost about Africa’s contested cyber environment, I explained that with the increased use of the internet and social media platforms on the continent, the African governments face a dilemma where they have little or no control over what the masses access and how they access it. Virtual Private Networks (VPN) usage has been a way out for the African population during the times that internet access had been obstructed. According to Tufekci, VPNs enable one to be protected from surveillance and censorship as their IP address is shielded, adding that as long as people are networking, they all do not have to use VPNs to access or share information. “News travels far and wide in such groups, and this type of communication does not require that every person practice active circumvention. All that is needed is one person to circumvent censorship in accessing the information and then share the information on a network.”
Jones (2023) argues that new digital setting in the Middle East and Northern Africa fosters authoritarianism than addressing it as it creates room for even more repressive systems to be put in place. He explains that the increased use of surveillance technology like Pegasus has contributed towards digital totalitarianism. He further explains that surveillance technology contravenes privacy laws and unifies autocratic governments as they are brought together by shared ‘security interests.’ “As digital technologies become increasingly pervasive, the authoritarian governments of the region face the danger of descending into totalitarianism as they pursue absolute security. This situation is exacerbated by political structures that prioritize regime security over individual privacy.”
Unfortunately, it is not only Sub Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East that are at the risk of totalitarianism, so is the rest of the world. Jones (2023) points out that the U.S. National Security Agency has been accused of being obtrusive domestically as well as international surveillance. “Terms like “authoritarian” and “hybrid” regimes sometimes conceal the fact that all governments, whether monarchical, theological, autocratic, or democratic, participate in behaviours that might be viewed as essential elements of totalitarian societies. However, in totalitarian or emergent totalitarian regimes, there is very little recourse for holding regimes responsible for ever-growing surveillance.”
References:
Ethiopia applies to join the BRICS bloc of emerging economies. 30 June 2023. Aljazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/30/ethiopia-applies-to-join-the-brics-bloc-of-emerging-economies
Ethiopia wants to join the BRICS group of nations: an expert unpacks the pros and cons. 11 July 2023. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/ethiopia-wants-to-join-the-brics-group-of-nations-an-expert-unpacks-the-pros-and-cons-209141
Eriksen, Thomas, Hylland (2014) Globalisation: The Key Concepts (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor & Francis Group.
Jones, Marc, Owen. (2023) The New, Unsustainable Order of Arab Digital Autocracy. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Pieterse, Jan. Naderveen (2018) Multipolar Globalization: Emerging Economies and Development. New York: Routledge.
Political Synergy: How the European Far-Right and Russia Have Joined Forces Against Brussels. Beatrix Futàk-Campbell. Atlantisch Perspectief, Vol. 44, No. 1, Special Edition: Putin’s Russia (2020), pp. 30-35.https://www.jstor.org/stable/48600543
Resisting ‘leftist dictatorship’? Memory politics and collective action framing in populist far-right street protest. Volk, Sabine. European Politics & Society, Dec2023, Vol. 24 Issue 5, p535-551, 17p. Taylor & Francis Ltd. Databas: Complementary Index
Tufekci, Zeynep. (2017) Twitter and Tear Gas-The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. New Haven & London: Yale University Press.
Two years after the killing of George Floyd, urgency to end racial inequalities and discrimination beckons. 22 May 2022. Africa Renewal. https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/two-years-after-killing-george-floyd-urgency-end-racial-inequalities-and-discrimination
Lessons learnt from Blogging:
It has been quite an experience having to write blogposts. These have been the first blogs I have ever written. Blogging introduced me to a new way of presenting information, rather than the journalistic/ objective way that I am used to. It has been a pleasure having to discuss different topics whilst airing my personal opinions. Nevertheless, I have had to explore and learn how ICT can be used for both good and bad in global development.
At the beginning of the blogging, I knew what I wanted to write about and weighed in on the sensitivity of both topics. It did not feel wise to share my true identity given that in today’s world, whatever you share online may one day come back and haunt you. Thus, I used a pseudo name.
It was interesting and sad to realise that in Africa, people live in constant fear and anxiety over what they comment on and share online. I did write a blogpost about targeted internet shutdowns in Sub Saharan Africa. I shared the link about it on my private social media platforms, including with friends back in Africa. None of them dared to leave a comment on either the blog post or the social media platforms that we used as a group.
My second blogpost was about researchers’ experience on studying far right in the west. I shared this post on one of my private social media platforms, where I have predominantly Swedish friends. And, because of the sensitivity of the topic (far right activism), I had to attach a disclaimer to my social media post. I wrote that it was a classroom exercise, and that anyone would leave any comment that they wanted. None of my friends commented.
My take from both blog posts and blogging experience is that we still live in a world where people lack freedom of expression, irrespective of where one is situated, be in the global south or global north. – Markel.
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