[Air-L] Call for Papers, special issue of Terminal on activists, digital sovereignty and the post-Soviet space

[Francesca Musiani]

Dear colleagues,

Please allow me to share (below) this call for articles for a special issue
coordinated by four members of the ResisTIC (resistic.fr) research team. A
French version is available here (
https://journals.openedition.org/terminal/6642) and contributions are
accepted in both French and English.

All the best
Francesca

----

Activists facing “digital sovereignty”. Reactions and new mobilizations in
the post-Soviet space

Call for papers for a special issue of the Terminal journal

Scientific committee

Olga Bronnikova (associate professor, University Grenoble-Alpes), Bella
Ostromooukhova (associate professor, Sorbonne University), Perrine Poupin
(post-doctoral researcher, ANR ResisTIC/Sorbonne University), Anna Zaytseva
(associate professor, University Toulouse Jean Jaurès)

Abstract

The digital space, initially managed in a global,  international and
multi-stakeholder way, has in recent years been pushed towards a dynamic of
national “digital sovereignties”. States are seeking to extend their
sovereignty in and through digital space, to legislate, impose constraints
or guarantee freedoms.

In this issue, we aim to explore the reactions to this trend by activist
individuals and groups in various post-Soviet countries. These phenomena
may include mobilizations for the protection of human rights in the digital
age, media activism, forms of action led by technical experts and hackers,
or reactions from more traditional activist and political worlds to the
proliferation of digital tools and their “sovereignization”. We are also
interested in actors’ mobilizations in favor of a sovereign national
cyberspace that should meet security and “moral” criteria specific to each
nation.

Argument

The digital space, initially managed outside traditional models of
State-based regulation, has been subject to a push towards sovereignization
for several years now. In the Russian case, this tendency gave rise to a
law known as the “Sovereign Internet” bill in 2019. Confronted by various
forms of extraterritorial domination of the Internet by major Internet
service players and by transnational institutions (ICANN, RIPE NCC, IETF,
W3C) of Internet governance, States are seeking to strengthen their
influence, extend their sovereignty in and through the digital world,
legislate, impose constraints or guarantee freedoms.

The notion of "digital sovereignty", which is now part of the discourse of
various public and private actors involved in the development of digital
technologies, also affects the relationships between States. The Snowden
revelations in 2013, bringing to light the mass surveillance practices
carried out globally by the United States National Security Agency, have
provided new justifications for authorities in different states to control
their national Internet spaces and protect them against external threats .
The claim of a state or intergovernmental authority over cyberspace now
seems to be part of a global framework for the interpretation of
cybersecurity or information security, showing a clear trend towards the
“militarization” of the digital space -- and sometimes even heralding a
cyber-”arms race”.

In the post-Soviet space, the “sovereignization” of the Internet could be
interpreted as a further step in taking control of citizens' communications
and, more broadly, of the Internet space, as it leads to a proliferation of
various forms of limitations of freedoms and repressions, including
challenges to the right to anonymity and encryption, blockages of entire
sites and platforms,  prison sentences for content published in national or
international social media, confiscation of computer equipment, and
wiretapping. The legal framework for such repression varies from country to
country. While the similarities between national legislations within the
post-soviet States through the circulation of practices and legal transfers
between its member countries, are often highlighted, their application
remains subject to the specificities of each situation and the
temporalities of each national context.

The initiatives of the Russian State encounter multifaceted resistance from
different actors, find support and generate controversy. In this issue, we
propose to explore the ways in which activists in different post-Soviet
countries are responding to the dynamics generated by sovereignty
strategies. These include mobilizations for the defense of human rights in
the digital age, media activism that views Internet infrastructure as an
object of struggle, forms of action led by technical experts (ISPs,
developers) and hackers, and reactions from the more "classical" activist
and political world. We are also interested in actors (religious movements,
various moral entrepreneurs and citizen protection organizations)
mobilizing in favor of a sovereign national cyberspace allegedly able to
better respond to security and "moral" criteria specific to each nation.

In order to apprehend the multiplicity of profiles of civil society actors
involved in the issues of "digital sovereignty" within the post-Soviet
space, publications in this issue, based on empirical research, will answer
preferably, but not exclusively, the following questions:

- Who are the actors, critics and mobilizations opposed to or advocating
the sovereignty of the Internet? How do these groups position themselves in
the local, national and international associative and political landscape,
and how do their actions, both online and offline, situate them in relation
to state authorities and economic actors?

- What are the tactics, repertoires or political styles of action of these
activists as well as their practices of circumventing new restrictions on
online exchanges?

- What are the meanings attributed by different activists to the terms
"digital freedoms" and "free Internet"?

- How do these multiple actors seize the law and mobilize notions emerging
at the international level ("protection of personal data", "fake news",
"right to be forgotten", etc.) to defend themselves or to sue
representatives of the authorities at different scales?

- Faced with surveillance and repression, how are new IT and physical
security practices developed by these various players? And, conversely, how
and by whom are security concepts mobilized to defend a "sovereign
Internet"?

 - What is the role these activists attribute to Silicon Valley giants, and
how do they perceive the relationship of these technical actors with the
State?

This issue proposal is led by the ANR ResisTIC project team (Net resisters.
Criticism and evasion of digital borders in Russia).
Submission guidelines

Authors wishing to submit an abstract (in French or in English) are invited
to send it, before February 28th 2021, to the following address :
resistic.terminal at tutanota.com, with a copy to redaction at revue-terminal.org. In
a proposal of 5,000 to 6,000 signs (spaces included), accompanied by a
short bio-bibliographical note of the author, it will be necessary to
specify: the empirical field mobilized, the approach and the methods used.
The final articles, to be submitted by early July 2021, may be written in
French or English.

Provisional planning

Mid-December 2020: publication of the open call for papers;

February 28, 2021: Submission of abstracts (5,000 - 6,000 characters
including spaces) detailing the method and empirical materials used;

Early April 2021: Feedback on proposals;

Early July 2021: Sending of final papers (40,000 characters including
spaces maximum);

November 30, 2021: Evaluations sent to authors;

March-April 2022: Final publication of the issue.

Instructions to authors can be found on the journal’s website
<http://terminal.revues.org/875>. Please send proposals to
resistic.terminal at tutanota.com with a copy to redaction at revue-terminal.org.

Bibliography

Deibert, R. J., & M. Crete-Nishihata, 2012, “Global governance and the
spread of cyberspace controls”, Global Governance, 18, 339.

Milan, S., 2013, Social Movements and Their Technologies: Wiring Social
Change, Londres, Palgrave Macmillan.

Mueller, M., 2017, Will the Internet Fragment? Sovereignty, globalization
and cyberspace, Cambridge, Polity Press

Nocetti, J., 2015, "Contest and conquest: Russia and global internet
governance." International Affairs 91, 111–130.

Pétin, P. & F. Tréguer, 2018, "Building and defending the alternative
Internet: the birth of the digital rights movement in France", Internet
histories, Taylor & Francis, pp.1-18
Tufekci, Z., 2017, Twitter and Tear Gas: The Power and Fragility of
Networked Protest, New Haven, Yale University Press.




-- 
Francesca Musiani, Ph.D.

Chargée de recherche | Associate Research Professor, CNRS
<http://www.cnrs.fr>
Directrice adjointe | Deputy Director, Centre for Internet and Society
<https://cis.cnrs.fr> (UPR 2000 & GDR 2091 CNRS)
Chercheuse associée | Associate Researcher, i3-CSI
<http://www.csi.ensmp.fr/>, MINES ParisTech
Global Fellow, Internet Governance Lab <https://internetgovernancelab.org>,
American University

I'm involved in: CPT-IAMCR <https://iamcr.org/s-wg/section/cpt> | Internet
Policy Review <https://policyreview.info> | RESET
<https://journals.openedition.org/reset/> | ISOC France
<https://www.isoc.fr> | ResisTIC <https://www.resistic.org>

On the Web <https://cis.cnrs.fr/francesca-musiani/> | On Twitter
<https://twitter.com/franmusiani>