Abstract
This chapter applies a critical human security perspective to cyberspace. It contends that emancipation provides human security with its core purpose, as it frees people both from the constraints imposed by despotic regimes (freedom from fear) and from an exploitative economic system (freedom from want). The idea that human emancipation can challenge the pre-existing order is reflected in the literature that foresees the digital revolution ushering in an age of transparency and empowerment. Conceiving security as emancipation, this chapter utilises the conceptual tool of the “three faces” of power to examine how human agency is enabled by the digital revolution (freedom from) as well as being simultaneously constrained by it (oppressed by).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Booth (2007) has subsequently added to this original definition of emancipation by including the caveat that one’s freedom cannot come at the expense of others and, further, that emancipation serves as a means of understanding the world we inhabit and as a framework for actualising change. I quote Booth’s original definition here to show that a critical approach to human security, even though it was not self-identified as such, predates the UN Human Development Report.
- 2.
Once algorithms are conceived of as restricting access and constraining human agency, challenging those elites who use algorithms for this purpose becomes an example of the open face of power.
- 3.
On 25 May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a new EU law, came into effect, which changes how companies can collect personal data and how that data can be used. It applies to all companies that offer their services to EU citizens, even if they are based outside the EU. Failure to abide by the requirements of the GDPR can result in a fine of 20 million euros or 4% of a company’s global turnover. The severity of this punishment explains the deluge of emails users received from companies that hold their data requesting that the users review their data privacy policies. In terms of the secretive power of framing how humans can use the internet, it makes the ways in which companies intend to use personal data more explicit (consent must be given by ticking a box, for example) and this consent must be clearly distinguishable from other matters in the terms of service. It is also not legal to require additional personal data in return for extra or premium services, as this does not constitute freely given consent. Users also have the right to access the data held about them and to require errors to be rectified and erased. The right to erase accurate data can also be requested.
Within hours of the GDPR coming into effect, a privacy protection group called none-of-your-business (noyb) filed four complaints against Facebook, Google, Instagram and WhatsApp. They accused these companies of forcing users to consent to targeted advertising to use their services; if that consent was not given, they prevented users from using their services. Max Schrems, chairman of noyb, claimed that this did not amount to people being given a free choice (noyb, 2018). Whether or not the complaint will be upheld is likely to rest upon whether social networking sites or instant messaging services can make the argument that processing users’ data for targeted advertising is a necessary requirement for the service they provide. That is, that processing data for targeted advertising is a core feature of what it means to share in cyberspace. If this argument is not persuasive, then their processing of data for targeted advertising will require separate consent that the user can decline without being denied use of the service (Hern, 2018). This could have significant consequences for the economic model that underpins SNS, but in terms of the secretive power, because consent is more explicitly required, it is likely to make users more aware that their data are as much shared as protected.
References
Amnesty International. (2014). Egypt’s plan for mass surveillance of social media is a “recipe for disaster”. Retrieved from https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/egypts-plan-mass-surveillance-social-media-recipe-disaster.
Apuzzo, M., & LaFraniere, S. (2018, February 16). 3 Russians indicted as Mueller reveals effort to aid Trump campaign. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/us/politics/russians-indicted-mueller-election-interference.html.
Bachrach, P., & Baratz, M. S. (1962). Two faces of power. American Political Science Review, 56(4), 947–952.
Benjaminsen, T. A., Svarstad, H., & Eira, I. M. G. (2018, August 29). Nykolonialisme på norsk [Neocolonialism in Norwegian.] Klassekampen. Retrieved from https://dagens.klassekampen.no/2018-08-29/nykolonialisme-pa-norsk.
Booth, K. (1991). Security and emancipation. Review of International Studies, 17(4), 313–326.
Booth, K. (2007). Theory of world security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Breslin, S., & Christou, G. (2015). Has the human security agenda come of age? Definitions, discourses and debates. Contemporary Politics, 21(1), 1–10.
Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, wikipedia, second life, and beyond: From production to produsage. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Calver, T., & Miller, J. (2018, July 6). Social site terms tougher than Dickens. BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44599968.
Cellan-Jones, R. (2018, March 19). Facebook data—As scandalous as MPs’ expenses? BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43458110.
Commons Select Committee. (2016). Internet giants “consciously failing” to tackle extremism on the web. Retrieved from https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/home-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2015/radicalisation-report-published-16-17/.
Community Action Network. (2018, March 26). CAN: Select Committee on online falsehoods should engage all NGOs in good faith. The Online Citizen. Retrieved from https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2018/03/26/can-select-committee-on-online-falsehoods-should-engage-all-ngos-in-good-faith/.
Dahl, R. A. (1957). The concept of power. Behavioral Science, 2(3), 201–215.
Digeser, P. (1992). The fourth face of power. The Journal of Politics, 54(4), 977–1007.
Dubois, E., & Blank, G. (2018). The echo chamber is overstated: The moderating effect of political interest and diverse media. Information, Communication & Society, 21(5), 729–745.
Dunn Cavelty, M. (2016). Cyber-security. In A. Collins (Ed.), Contemporary security studies (4th ed., pp. 400–416). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Frenkel, S., & Benner, K. (2018, February 17). To stir discord in 2016, Russians turned most often to Facebook. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/17/technology/indictment-russian-tech-facebook.html.
Greenfield, P. (2018, March 26). The Cambridge Analytica files: The story so far. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/26/the-cambridge-analytica-files-the-story-so-far.
Grimes, D. R. (2017, December 4). Echo chambers are dangerous—We must try to break free of our online bubbles. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2017/dec/04/echo-chambers-are-dangerous-we-must-try-to-break-free-of-our-online-bubbles.
Groshek, J., & Koc-Michalska, K. (2017). Helping populism win? Social media use, filter bubbles, and support for populist presidential candidates in the 2016 US election campaign. Information, Communication & Society, 20(9), 1389–1407.
Grossman, L. (2006, December 25). 2006 person of the year. Time Magazine, pp. 38–41.
Grossman, L. (2010, December 27). 2010 person of the year. Time Magazine, pp. 44–75.
Hayward, C. R. (2000). De-facing power. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Hermida, A. (2014). Tell everyone: Why we share & why it matters. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.
Hern, A. (2018, May 25). Facebook and Google targeted as first GDPR complaints filed. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/may/25/facebook-google-gdpr-complaints-eu-consumer-rights.
Hossain, K., Zojer, G., Greaves, W., Miguel Roncero, J., & Sheehan, M. (2017). Constructing Arctic security: An inter-disciplinary approach to understanding security in the Barents Region. Polar Record, 53(1), 52–66.
Human Rights Watch. (2017). Egypt: Events of 2016. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2017/country-chapters/egypt.
Hynek, N., & Chandler, D. (2011). Introduction: Emancipation and power in human security. In D. Chandler & N. Hynek (Eds.), Critical perspectives on human security: Rethinking emancipation and power in international relations (pp. 1–10). London: Routledge.
Hynek, N., & Chandler, D. (2013). No emancipatory alternative, no critical security studies. Critical Studies on Security, 1(1), 46–63.
Karlsen, R., Steen-Johnsen, K., Wollebæk, D., & Enjolras, B. (2017). Echo chamber and trench warfare dynamics in online debates. European Journal of Communication, 32(3), 257–273.
Kerr, P. (2013). Human security. In A. Collins (Ed.), Contemporary security studies (3rd ed., pp. 104–116). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lakkala, A. (2017, August 28). “Like terrorists at the bottom of an outhouse”: Being Sámi in the 100-year-old Finland. The Barents Observer. Retrieved from https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/life-and-public/2017/08/terrorists-bottom-outhouse-being-sami-100-year-old-finland.
Lindgren, S., & Cocq, C. (2017). Turning the inside out: Social media and the broadcasting of indigenous discourse. European Journal of Communication, 32(2), 131–150.
Lukes, S. (1974). Power: A radical view. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Marczak, B., Weaver, N., Dalek, J., Ensafi, R., Fifield, D., McKune, S., … Paxson, V. (2015, April 10). China’s Great Cannon. The Citizen Lab. Retrieved from https://citizenlab.ca/2015/04/chinas-great-cannon/.
McLaren, D., & Agyeman, J. (2015). Sharing cities: A case for truly smart and sustainable cities. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Morozov, E. (2011). The net delusion: How not to liberate the world. London: Penguin Books.
Murdoch, L. (2018, February 14). Hun Sen’s Cambodia slides even further into dictatorship. The Age. Retrieved from https://www.theage.com.au/world/asia/hun-sen-s-cambodia-slides-even-further-into-dictatorship-20180214-p4z0b8.html.
Newman, E. (2010). Critical human security studies. Review of International Studies, 36(1), 77–94.
NOYB—European Center for Digital Rights. (2018, May 25). GDPR: noyb.eu filed four complaints over “forced consent” against Google, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook. noyb.eu. Retrieved from https://noyb.eu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/pa_forcedconsent_en.pdf.
Paris, R. (2004). Still an inscrutable concept. Security Dialogue, 35(3), 370–371.
Pariser, E. (2011). The filter bubble: What the internet is hiding from you. London: Penguin Books.
Peou, S. (2014). Human security studies: Theories, methods and themes. Singapore: World Scientific.
Salminen, M., & Hossain, K. (2018). Digitalisation and human security dimensions in cybersecurity: An appraisal for the European High North. The Polar Record, 54(2), 108–118.
Shahbaz, A. (2018). Freedom on the net 2018: The rise of digital authoritarianism. Freedom House. Retrieved from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-net/freedom-net-2018/rise-digital-authoritarianism.
Statista. (2018). Daily time spent on social networking by internet users worldwide from 2012 to 2017 (in minutes). The Statistics Portal. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/.
Swartz, D. (1997). Culture and power: The sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Tadjbakhsh, S., & Chenoy, A. M. (2009). Human security: Concepts and implications. London: Routledge.
Taylor, M. (2018, May 18). Julian Assange is suffering needlessly. Why not report that? The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/18/julian-assange-media-detention.
The Guardian. (2018). The Cambridge Analytica files. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/cambridge-analytica-files.
van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A critical history of social media. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Collins, A. (2020). Critical Human Security and Cyberspace: Enablement Besides Constraint. In: Salminen, M., Zojer, G., Hossain, K. (eds) Digitalisation and Human Security. New Security Challenges. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48070-7_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48069-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48070-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)