7.

Digital dictatorship

Vilmantė Liubinienė
vilmante.liubiniene@ktu.lt
 CHINA’S digital dictatorship
– China has introduced social
scorecards, in which all citizens are
monitored 24/7 and ranked on their
behavior.
– The Communist Party’s plan is for
every one of its 1.4 billion citizens to
be placed on a social credit system.
 CHINA’S digital dictatorship
– An active program has already seen millions of people each
assigned a score out of 800 and either reap its benefits or
suffer its consequences — depending on which end of the
scale they sit.
– Under the social credit scheme, points are lost and gained
based on readings from a sophisticated network of 540 million
surveillance cameras. (2022-09-25).
– Xi Jinping is creating the most heavily-surveilled state in history.
Cameras watch citizens as they shop and dine.
– The program has been enabled by rapid advances in facial
recognition, body scanning and geo-tracking.
– China's "social credit" system purports to rank citizens
according to their behavior, trustworthiness, and
adherence to the law.
– Political dissent results in a lower "social credit" score
and a reduction in privileges.
– The system is enforced by hundreds of millions of
cameras throughout the country using facial recognition
software.
– It's thoroughly dystopian...but is a similar system going
to spread on a global scale?
 In China today…. Digital dictatorship

– China's social credit system keeps a critical eye on everyday behavior,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onm6Sb3Pb2Y
– Exporting dystopia: China’s social credit system,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqqZEf4LJuw
– China Introduces Social Scorecards
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGhRoY1ct50
– Exposing China's Digital Dystopian Dictatorship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eViswN602_k
How China’s Mass Surveillance Works
China's social credit system keeps a critical eye
on everyday behavior
Exporting dystopia: China’s social credit system
The Netflix documentary
“The Great Hack”
– Carole Cadwalladr
Facebook's role in Brexit — and the threat to democracy | Carole Cadwalladr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQSMr-3GGvQ
– In an unmissable talk, journalist Carole Cadwalladr digs into one of the most perplexing events in
recent times: the UK's super-close 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Tracking the result to a
barrage of misleading Facebook ads targeted at vulnerable Brexit swing voters -- and linking the same
players and tactics to the 2016 US presidential election -- Cadwalladr calls out the "gods of Silicon
Valley" for being on the wrong side of history and asks:
– Are free and fair elections a thing of the past?

– How Donald Trump and Brexit used Facebook to pollute minds.

– Brexit - What Facebook and Trump did with us, Carole Cadwalladr 4 min.
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPrzEPkYduI
Brexit - What Facebook and Trump did
with us, Carole Cadwalladr
 Cambridge Analytica

– Christopher Wylie, who worked for data firm Cambridge Analytica, reveals how
personal information was taken without authorisation in early 2014 to build a system
that could profile individual US voters in order to target them with personalised
political advertisements.
– At the time the company was owned by the hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer, and
headed at the time by Donald Trump’s key adviser, Steve Bannon.
– Its CEO is Alexander Nix How Cambridge Analytica turned Facebook ‘likes’ into a
lucrative political tool
►https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/17/facebook-cambridge-
analytica-kogan-data-algorithm
 Cambridge Analytica

– Cambridge Analytica - The Power of Big Data and Psychographics

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8Dd5aVXLCc
– The Man Behind Cambridge Analytica 2018-04-27
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuZmWvhtwaE
– Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook
profiles‘2018-03-17
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXdYSQ6nu-M
– Cambridge Analytica: Whistleblower reveals data grab of 50 million Facebook profiles
2018-03-17
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb6-xz-geH4
Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent
$1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles'
 Brittany Kaiser
– Persvadables
– Liberal democracy is broken

– Brittany Kaiser, former Cambridge Analytica director

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krY8DW3V2NU
– Cambridge Analytica Whistleblower Brittany Kaiser: Lack Of Transparency In
Data Gathering | CNBC
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CctRGUwjm7k
– Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Brittany Kaiser: "The law doesn't protect
you"
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juwp6fhn6bc
– Brittany Kaiser at Hong Kong Blockchain Week 2019 - on US legislation
and #OwnYourData campaign
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8tlioHK2yE
– Data is the new oil; Digital assents; From: 12.45 – 22.57
– With increase of IOT, even your coffee machine or refrigerator are going to collect data sets
about you, and feeding those back to companies. Artificial intelligence is going to make
decisions on your behalf, based on the data sets that you are sharing in your daily life.
– Every year we are producing at least 40% more data.
– Before our wall papers start produce data about how we use our living room, we really need
to start thinking about digital asset legislation in a much more serious manner.
– Now – you do not own your data at all.
– Digital intelligence – from: 28.30
– Education; Creating legislation; Creating the types of technologies that solve these problems
– Digital identity from: 30.00
– Privacy legislation under human rights framework, both nationally and internationally. You
have a right to privacy, the right to protect your personal data and information, - is the
incredible next step.
– Data rights and digital rights as the newest form of human rights.
Brittany Kaiser - on US legislation
and #OwnYourData campaign
 Yuval Noah Harari:
"21 Lessons for the 21st Century"
– Yuval Noah Harari: "21 Lessons for the 21st Century" | Talks at Google
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw9P_ZXWDJU
– From: 10.00 Now we have external data collection
– But we are at the tip of the revolution
– When AI revolution meets and merges with a biotech revolution and goes under the skin.
– Free will is out. Humans are no longer a black box
– You are not understanding what is happening in your brain, but some corporation or
company can understand this.
– It is not AI, it is biotech, only in the combination with biology AI really becomes
revolutionary.
– The fake news: from 34.40
– Global problems: from: 36.30, answer 37.30
Yuval Noah Harari | 21 Lessons for the 21st
Century | Talks at Google
The effect of “cheap fake” or “deep fake” on
individuals’ susceptibility to the new techniques
– New forms of misleading contents have started spreading on social
media, potentially more dangerous than other forms of problematic
information. They are called “cheap fake” and “deep fake.”
– Cheap fakes employ a simple “selective editing” technique to change
videos in ways that they do not show what really happened.
– Deep fakes use artificial intelligence to create entirely fictional videos,
images, or audio. To date, these new techniques are utilized
predominantly in politics, to discredit politicians or political
organizations. The goal is to research the level of individuals’
susceptibility to these new techniques.
Deepfake Bruce Willis appears in
Russian advert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp4jbs7ivSY
 Tasks for Seminar 9

– Watch the films and the materials provided and be ready to

present your ideas for the open discussion during the seminar. E.g.:
– How to influence the voter’s behavior during elections, or other decision making
processes?
– What are the main new developments related to Big Data and mass surveillance?
– Trust versus surveillance?
– How to cope with digital dictatorship?
– Describe the revolution Yuval Noah Harari is talking about.
– Provide for discussion at least several points, touched upon in the films and talks.
Be ready to facilitate that discussion.