Sociotechnical imaginaries of algorithmic governance in EU policy on online disinformation and FinTech

Datafication and the use of algorithmic systems increasingly blur distinctions between policy fields. In the financial sector, for example, algorithms are used in credit scoring, money has become transactional data sought after by large data-driven companies, while financial technologies (FinTech) are emerging as a locus of information warfare. To grasp the context specificity of algorithmic governance and the assumptions on which its evaluation within different domains is based, we comparatively study the sociotechnical imaginaries of algorithmic governance in European Union (EU) policy on online disinformation and FinTech. We find that sociotechnical imaginaries prevalent in EU policy documents on disinformation and FinTech are highly divergent. While the first can be characterized as an algorithm-facilitated attempt to return to the presupposed status quo (absence of manipulation) without a defined future imaginary, the latter places technological innovation at the centre of realizing a globally competitive Digital Single Market

Digital Authoritarianism and Russia's War Against Ukraine: How Sanctions-induced Infrastructural Disruptions are Reshaping Russia's Repressive Capacities

Advances in digital technology are fundamentally reshaping the nature and dynamics of control mechanisms in authoritarian states. While there has been a surge in research on the strategies autocracies use to enhance control over the internet, scholarship on "digital authoritarianism" insufficiently acknowledges the concentration of power in increasingly integrated digital infrastructures and the transnational dependencies this has given rise to. In this article we argue that authoritarian states' dependence on foreign digital technologies and services can shape and constrain their capacity to control, surveil, and repress domestically. To illustrate our argument, we examine how Russia's war against Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia in response have influenced its domestic repressive capacities. Assessing the period February-September 2022, we find that the war has had an ambiguous effect, both providing enhanced capacity for digital authoritarianism and undermining the future integrity of the digital infrastructures on which this repressive apparatus relies on

Can Filter Bubbles Protect Information Freedom? Discussions of Algorithmic News Recommenders in Eastern Europe

The increasing use of recommender systems to provide personalized news delivery influences media systems worldwide. Using different data sources to predict what content will be interesting for specific readers, recommender systems can better accommodate individual information needs, but also raise concerns about potential audience fragmentation. However, current assessments of the effects of news personalization are predominantly based on observations from Western democracies. This Western-centric approach raises concerns about these assessments’ applicability to other contexts, in particular non-democratic ones, and brings to question the influence of prevalent Western conceptualisations of news personalization (e.g., filter bubbles) on attitudes towards it in non-Western countries. To address this gap, we scrutinize discussions of the promises and threats of news personalization in countries characterized by limited press freedom: Belarus, Russia and Ukraine. Using document analysis, we examine how three categories of actors—academics, journalists and IT specialists—discuss news personalization and the ways it can affect the public sphere. Through our analysis we uncover how Western conceptualisations of news personalization interact with discussions about it in non-democratic media systems and scrutinize whether existing concerns about personalization are applicable to non-Western contexts

The Making of a Political Myth:Stability “Po-Stolypinski”

This article analyses the emergence of the political myth of Pëtr Stolypin and its recent institutionalization as an exemplary image for Russian politics. The article considers the memory of Stolypin together with the myth of the Time of Troubles, that served the Putin regime well in its first and second terms, to demonstrate how the post-revolutionary frame of reference implicit in the latter has been replaced by the pre-revolutionary frame of “stability Stolypin-style”: a new brand of stability-oriented state patriotism that taps into the very same societal fears and insecurities connected to memories of the 1990s, but is geared to fit a situation in which recent accomplishments have to be safeguarded against the perceived threat posed by domestic rather than foreign enemies. Instead of promising a stable and prosperous future, the Stolypin myth cautions that recent achievements can all too easily be lost again

Digital Russia Studies : An Introduction

Peer reviewe

Netoscope: A New Black Box Through Which the Russian Government Controls Content Dissemination?

Russia has increasingly adopted policies that leverage the power of private infrastructure owners, including algorithmic gatekeepers, to achieve more effective, but less easily perceptible, control over online content dissemination. This article analyzes the Netoscope project, which has compiled a database of Russian domain names suspected of malware, botnet or phishing activities. Within the framework of this project, federal censor Roskomnadzor cooperates with Yandex (which downgrades listed domains in its search results), Kaspersky, and foreign partners. The article concludes that non-transparency creates possibilities for misuse of the project.</p