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Giulio Quarta Thanks to Nena Jain for the initial input given at ReFi Unconference Barcelona, and to Pablo Somonte Ruano!
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Across the globe, the intensification of internet surveillance and authoritarian governance are concerningly intertwined trends. These circumstances are worsening the conditions of human rights, already far from optimal in many countries, particularly affecting minorities and opposition groups.
This Knowledge Element of the Commons Economy Roadmap explores the potential of Holochain, an open framework for distributed applications, to enable the creation of secure and locally-controlled applications (hApps) for the social groups more affected by both digitally-empowered authoritarianism and scarcity of technical expertise and infrastructure.
It is unfortunately well documented that more and more governments are turning toward authoritarianism or intensifying such tendencies, and that advancements in technologically-enabled forms of surveillance are both cause and effect of this nefarious trend.
This has taken a significant turn especially after the COVID pandemic that in many cases served as a justification for more control; in the West a few private Big Tech Corporations collect all kind of personal data from the majority of the population, while in the East major countries such as China and India are consolidating and exporting draconian surveillance regimes.
For a simple and concise definition, Wikipedia can help:
*IT-backed authoritarianism, also known as techno-authoritarianism, digital authoritarianism or digital dictatorship, refers to the state use of information technology in order to control or manipulate both foreign and domestic populations. Tactics of digital authoritarianism may include mass surveillance including through biometrics such as facial recognition, internet firewalls and censorship, internet blackouts, disinformation campaigns, and digital social credit systems. Although some institutions assert that this term should only be used to refer to authoritarian governments, others argue that the tools of digital authoritarianism are being adopted and implemented by governments with "authoritarian tendencies", including democracies.*
While this is a global problem that has to be addressed at all levels with a plurality of strategies, this article focuses on the worst contexts in terms of safety, where minorities and activists in situations of scarcity face life-threatening forms of repression.
These groups have a literally vital need for privacy-preserving tools, for internal communication and organizing, and this is why we think that they could be the the first meaningful adopters of such truly distributed applications. In scenarios where private interaction is crucial for safety, the usual trade-offs between privacy and usability — one of the main problem of private tech developers worldwide — becomes much less significant.
We believe that the Holochain architecture is well-suited to meet these needs and the ecosystem could benefit from focusing more on these use cases. In the next section, we will dive into the technical aspects of this proposal.
We can also provide some examples of social groups in different scales and situations to better imagine the implementation of these tools: