Browsing by Subject "Uyghurs"

China represents a digital dictatorship where digital repressive measures are effectively used to control citizens and dissidents. Continuous monitoring and analysis of data of individuals, groups and organizations is the core of China’s massive digital surveillance system. Internet and social media is under censorship, information is being manipulated and certain individuals and groups are targeted. In order to achieve all of this, China makes extensive use of modern technology such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition. One particular section of the population that has had to experience the full force and scale of digital repression, are China’s own indigenous people, the Uyghurs. Based on their research, human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch have reported that the Chinese authorities have placed Xinjiang Uyghurs under mass arrests and detentions. According to the US State Department’s recent estimates, possibly over a million Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs and other Muslims are being held in internment camps. The detainees are reportedly subjected to beatings, torture, rape and even killed. The plight of the Uyghurs represents the most extensive mass imprisonment of an ethnic and religious minority since World War II. China is also systematically seeking to destroy Uyghur culture and ethnic characteristics. Mosques are destroyed, the practice of religion and the use of the mother tongue are banned, children are separated from their parents and women are forcibly sterilized. On January 2021, The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, gave a declaration where he named the acts China is committing against the Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as genocide. Many liberal democracies replied with similar statements. This master’s thesis seeks to answer three main questions. First, what is digital repression, second, how does China use modern technology for digital repression, and third, how does this repression affect the Uyghurs? In addition, I consider the ethical dimension and issues associated with digital repression. This includes the broader context of repressive algorithms, such as direct or indirect discrimination, as well as human rights issues, such as privacy and freedom. This is particularly important as we witness how the world is filled with a variety of devices that utilize artificial intelligence but also allow for a new scale of control and surveillance, and as we face the current era of digital dictatorships that do not respect human rights. The current world situation also raises a serious point of reflection, as artificial intelligence has become the subject of a new kind of competition between countries. China is for example exporting its surveillance technology and facial recognition capabilities beyond its own boarders to countries like Pakistan or Zimbabwe.