The global decline in political rights and civil liberties has coincided with the expanding reach of the internet (Dragu & Lupu, 2021). This Workshop examines how emerging digital platforms, practices, and policies help entrench authoritarianism, or exacerbate democratic backsliding, in regions where the majority of humanity resides, including Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America. The Workshop maps the transforming terrain of digital authoritarianism (Schlumberger et al., 2024), from internet shutdowns and online censorship to surveillance, disinformation, and participatory propaganda. It also elucidates how data justice and civil rights activists are developing strategies to resist such authoritarianism.
While research on digital authoritarianism has burgeoned in recent years, the scholarship remains limited to a few nations — typically those already deemed authoritarian (Roberts & Oosterom, 2024). We turn attention to the Global South and East to explore the myriad forms digital authoritarian practices take across societies with varied democratic, totalitarian and hybrid political histories.
A Workshop is an effective format to bring scholars interested in diverse contexts to share their work with each other. This will also help generate a more cohesive conceptual understanding of digital authoritarianism and its evolving tools, modalities, and effects. The Workshop will aim to advance knowledge in three key directions.
First, while foregrounding the significance of political and historical context, the Workshop will illustrate how comparative and transnational approaches can help us explore the material and normative diffusion of digital authoritarianism. For example, contributions could examine how China’s digital policies serve as a 'model' for repressive regimes elsewhere (Bashirov et al., 2025).
Second, extant scholarship emphasises internet shutdowns and surveillance as the key instruments of digital authoritarianism (Yingi & Benyera, 2025). The Workshop will also pay attention to novel modalities such as participatory propaganda and violations of digital rights (Freedom House, 2023).
Third, moving beyond a narrow focus on states, the Workshop will also consider the role of corporations, tech operators, ordinary users and other actors in reinforcing authoritarianism (Glasius, 2023). It also invites contributions on everyday acts of algorithmic resistance to digital authoritarianism (Bonini & Treré, 2024).
Bashirov, G., Akbarzadeh, S., Yilmaz, I., & Ahmed, Z. S. (2025). Diffusion of digital authoritarian practices in China’s neighbourhood: the cases of Iran and Pakistan. Democratization, 1-24.
Bonini, T., & Treré, E. (2024). Algorithms of resistance: The everyday fight against platform power. MIT Press.
Dragu, T., & Lupu, Y. (2021). Digital authoritarianism and the future of human rights. International Organization, 75(4), 991-1017.
Freedom House. (2023). Freedom on the net, 2023. https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/2023/repressive-power-artificial-intelligence
Glasius, M. (2023). Authoritarian practices in a global age. Oxford University Press.
Roberts, T., & Oosterom, M. (2024). Digital authoritarianism: a systematic literature review. Information Technology for Development, 1-25.
Schlumberger, O., Edel, M., Maati, A., & Saglam, K. (2024). How authoritarianism transforms: A framework for the study of digital dictatorship. Government and Opposition, 59(3), 761-783.
Yingi, E., & Benyera, E. (2025). The future of democracy in the digital era: Internet shutdowns, cyber laws and online surveillance in Zimbabwe. Alternatives, 50(2), 283-297.
1: How do digital technologies, platforms, and infrastructures enable authoritarianism in the Global South and East?
2: How have the modalities of digital authoritarianism—from shutdowns to censorship, propaganda etc— evolved in GSE?
3: What are the roles played by diverse actors—including the state, parties, corporations, civil society and citizens?
1: What factors and conditions can accentuate or ameliorate digital authoritarianism in the Global South and East?
2: Who are the targets of digital authoritarianism in the Global South and East and what is its impact on them?
3: How does digital authoritarianism diffuse, either materially or normatively, across the Global South and East?
4: How are legal or extra-legal instruments used for/against digital authoritarianism in the Global South and East?
5: What are the responses to digital authoritarianism and under what conditions are they likely to succeed?
6: How does digital authoritarianism shape power relations, domestic and international, in the Global South and East?
