A conference devoted to challenging “digital authoritarianism” is something that IGP can certainly get behind. But what is digital authoritarianism, and was it really being challenged in Italy on October 28 and 29? At the meeting “Decrypting Digital Authoritarianism: How the Use of the Internet Can Threaten Democracy and Human Rights,” I learned a lot about the answers to those questions.

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The good news here is that Europe is seeing a threat to communicative freedom and is devoting resources to combating that trend. It is also good news that the academics, activists and some policy makers concerned about digital authoritarianism are realizing that it is not entirely about “us” liberal democratic good guys vs “them” geopolitical bad guys. The drivers of systemic control are present on both sides, and the competition for geopolitical power between state actors is largely responsible for the authoritarian trend. The academic researchers involved in this debate need to be careful that they are not coopted into supporting certain kinds of repression in that competition. Keep the fundamental rights of the individual uppermost in mind and don’t get drawn into any state’s geopolitical agenda.