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17.10.2019
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Zunfthaus zur Meisen, Zurich

49. Economic Conference

Social Scoring – Where Do We Stand?

Ron Deibert

«Social Media, Digital Surveillance and the Threats to Liberal Democracy»

Christoph Frei

«Technology 5.0 – Politics 1.0»

The theme of the Progress Foundation’s 49th Economic Conference was “Social scoring – where do we stand? The two speakers brought very different perspectives to the table.

Prof. Ron Deibert gave an impressive demonstration of the technical tools that states have at their disposal (and use) to monitor and manipulate disagreeable people such as activists, journalists and members of the opposition, and to obstruct their use of the media in a variety of ways.

Prof. Christoph Frei put forward the not uncontroversial, and in any case open to abuse, thesis that in assessing states one must not only look at institutional and procedural legitimacy, but also at output legitimacy, i.e. the (economic) well-being of the population.

Presentation by Ronald Deibert

Canadian political scientist and director of the Citizen Lab, University of Toronto

Deibert tracks how information and communication technologies are being used around the world to secure power under the guise of national security – even in democracies.

In his presentation, Deibert showed that many states now systematically use spyware to monitor unpopular individuals. Human rights activists, journalists and opposition politicians are caught in the crossfire. Deibert used specific examples to illustrate how special software is used to gain access to the computers and mobile phones of targeted individuals.

While many people initially thought that big data would democratise the Internet, it is now becoming clear that the new technologies are also being used to undermine democracy, Deibert said. This growing use of spyware is not just dangerous because it restricts freedom. It is a threat to democracy itself. Autocratic tendencies are developing in more and more countries, and the use of spyware, which is still largely unregulated internationally, allows anti-democratic forces to spread disinformation with relatively little effort (e.g. on social media).

Here you can find the slides of Ronald Deibert’s presentation:

Slides

Presentation by Christioph Frei (in German)

Professor of Political Science and International Relations, University of St. Gallen

Christoph Frei spoke about the structure and role of state institutions in the face of today’s global challenges. Frei emphasised the need to question existing state structures and to measure them in terms of their efficiency and ability to solve problems.

The classic nation-state as a monopoly of legitimate physical power was the most successful state organisation in history, he said. Today, however, we find ourselves in a different legal and economic environment than in the 19th century, when most Western parliamentary republics were established. Globalisation and the opening up of economic and legal areas have led to a relativisation of the concept of state power. Switzerland has concluded more than 4,000 different international treaties and has always voluntarily surrendered a certain amount of sovereignty.

States should be judged not only by the legitimacy of their institutions and procedures, but also by the legitimacy of their output. Despite the global processes of change and the rapid transformation in the field of digital technologies, state institutions are still at the same level as they were in the 19th century. It is therefore necessary to question the existing structures and, above all, to evaluate them on the basis of their performance, legitimacy  and their ability to solve problems. The classical forms of state organisation at the national level, but also at the international level (e.g. the UN), have not really proven that they are capable of solving complex problems adequately.

Here you can find a summary and the slides of Christoph Frei’s presentation:

Summary
Slides