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Orwell Day

Marta Peirano and Peter Pomerantsev

Technology, Digital Surveillance, and Disinformation

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In this conversation. the journalists Marta Peirano and Peter Pomerantsev, with the researcher Liliana Arroyo as moderator, will speak about how the dream of a free and emancipatory Internet has given way to a system of surveillance and manipulation that operates without democratic supervision.

During the pandemic we have seen how governments around the world have considered adopting programmes using biocontrol technologies to monitor citizens by means of apps and other digital technologies. The exceptional situation occasioned by the virus has accelerated the trend towards a society of digital control where states and huge technological platforms compete for data of citizens all over the world. Cyberspace is, then, a new geostrategic territory and those who understand and control the new architectures of information have the advantage. This situation comes together with a worsening poisoning of the media news ecosystem by campaigns of manipulation with unforeseeable consequences, as we have seen with recent elections around the world. Hence, as the crisis in the health system is happening, we are also seeing how the infodemic is being organised. How can democracy survive the new forms of surveillance and disinformation? How can we construct a global digital sovereignty that could escape the logic of algorithm control and opacity?

This conversation has been prerecorded in order to guarantee its technical quality. It will be broadcast simultaneously on the CCCB and The Orwell Foundation websites.

The Orwell Day is an initiative developed since its beginnings with the Orwell Day Collective and that is celebrated in collaboration with the PEN Català and The Orwell Foundation.

Moderators: Liliana Arroyo

Participants: Marta Peirano, Peter Pomerantsev

This activity is part of Orwell Day 2020, Orwell Day

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Marta Peirano and Peter Pomerantsev

Technology, Digital Surveillance, and Disinformation

The journalists Marta Peirano and Peter Pomerantsev, with the researcher Liliana Arroyo as moderator, speak about how the dream of a free and emancipatory Internet has given way to a system of surveillance and manipulation that operates without democratic supervision.

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