Dr. Skip Mark, Assistant Professor of Political Science & Director of the Center for Nonviolence & Peace Studies

Abstract: How can we predict and prevent violations of internet freedoms to ensure continued global digital rights advocacy and governmental accountability for engaging in digital rights violations? This project aims to investigate the growing use of digital repression through a new data collection effort that uses qualitative and quantitative information to develop more robust measures of whether digital repression occurred, where it occurred, who was targeted, and who was responsible for the repressive act. Using these data, we intend to (1) demonstrate the degree to which tactics such as internet shutdowns, online censorship, throttling of telecoms services, or digital surveillance serve to abet other human rights abuses and (2) develop a global analysis of digital repression tactics used by every country.