Policy belief systems manifesting digital authoritarianism

This commentary explores how policy debates about emerging technologies and data facilitate digital authoritarianism in the Global Majority nations. Building on ‘networked authoritarianism’, the paper shifts focus from outcomes to the discursive processes through which authoritarian practices manifest. Analysing public discourse on social media, the study examines the interplay of digital rights narratives among politicians, government officials, news outlets, and civil society. The paper draws on a multi-country project undertaken by Global Voices, which analysed narratives on data governance and digital rights to reveal how digital authoritarianism takes hold in Turkey, Sudan, El Salvador, and India, countries that lie outside the Western liberal order. The project adopted a qualitative methodology to identify subtextual information, themes, and narrative frames within 310 media items that record discussions about data governance and digital rights. In examining the manifestation of digital authoritarianism, it highlights how politics of different countries entrench themselves into the experience and potential of digital artefacts and emerging digital technologies. Consolidating the project's findings, the commentary argues that digital authoritarianism in these countries is fostered through propaganda and how seemingly benign policy conversations take the form of ‘policy belief systems’ that enable digital authoritarianism.