Surveillance and Control

Today's most innovative police states owe more to Mark Zuckerberg than to Joseph Stalin. From weaponizing copyright to biometric systems, in this current we explore the security-technology complex and what's at the nexus of the apparatus of surveillance and control.

‘I felt like I was a prisoner’: The rapid rise of US immigration authorities’ electronic surveillance programs

For many newcomers to the U.S., electronic surveillance is the only way to evade detention

Erica Hellerstein

A tragedy in Nigeria shows the risks of cheap drone warfare

African militaries are turning to affordable Turkish and Chinese drones to fight insurgencies. But without controls, civilian deaths are inevitable

Olatunji Olaigbe

Year in review: Digitization and the apparatus of control

How has technology affected migration, surveillance and labor? A roundup of Coda’s top tech stories from 2023.

Ellery Roberts Biddle

In India, Big Brother is watching

Apple warned Indian journalists and opposition politicians last month that their phones had likely been hacked by a state-sponsored attacker. Is this more evidence of democratic backsliding?

The smart city where everybody knows your name

In small-town Kazakhstan, an experiment with the “smart city” model has some residents smiling. But it also signals the start of a new mass surveillance era for the Central Asian nation.

Bradley Jardine

Indian journalists are being treated like terrorists for doing their jobs

Accused of receiving Chinese funding, the founder of a digital newsroom critical of the Modi government faces terrorism charges

For Arab dissidents, the walls are closing in

The Arab League is relying on the little-known Arab Interior Ministers Council to target critics abroad. Now, a former detainee is taking them to court in the U.S.

For migrants under 24/7 surveillance, the UK feels like ‘an outside prison’

He’s lived in the UK since he was a small child. But the Home Office wants to deport him — and track him wherever he goes

Isobel Cockerell

Why trans people can’t trust Tennessee with their data

The Attorney General says the state will hold medical records in the strictest confidence, even as it bans gender-affirming care

Rebekah Robinson

Lithuania goes after bots following spikes in pro-Russian propaganda

Lithuania’s parliament is looking to criminalize automated account activity – and to hold Big Tech accountable for the same

Amanda Coakley and Ellery Roberts Biddle

The global rise of anti-trans legislation

Conservative lawmakers from Uganda to the United States are targeting LGBTQ+ people

Tamara Evdokimova

Russia’s ban on gender transition amounts to ‘torture’

Psychologist Egor Burtsev says the Russian parliament’s decision to deny gender-affirming care to transgender people will be devastating

Tamara Evdokimova

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