Inivitation to the IPW Lecture Digital authoritarianism: China's surveillance regime, AI and digital sovereignty.
Lecturer: Franziska Plümmer (Department of East Asian Studies | University of Vienna)
Moderation: Meropi Tzanetakis (IPW | University of Vienna)
When: Friday, 18 December 2020, 15:00
Where: Online - https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMude6trz4vG9ZUVahjt-q0ZUR5ns0gyLa0
This IPW Lecture will be held in German.
Abstract:
China’s Orwellian security state has long been haled by international media. No other country invested so strategically and massively in developing internet, digital, and AI technologies. To better understand the rationality underlying China’s AI development, this talk investigates the political project that is China’s ambition to become an ‘AI superpower’ including both domestic and international efforts. Taking the utilization of digital technologies to control the COVID-19 epidemic as a case study, I argue that the Chinese digital space is fragmented. Looking also beyond China’s borders, I give a first glimpse at my new research project which aims at analyzing global responses to China’s efforts to export digital (surveillance) technologies. By providing internet services abroad, Chinese data companies implement domestic data laws and internet regulations abroad. Beijing utilizes these companies to import foreign data (such as health information from U.S.-citizens) or directly censor online content in social media abroad (such as in Indonesia) which prompts questions about digital sovereignty.
An event within the IPW Lectures, an international lecture series of the Department for Political Science, University of Vienna.
