Digitalism and the future of state surveillance; Studying how digitalism affects government surveillance in the Islamic Republic of Iran; The elites' viewpoint

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Assistant Professor of Faculty of Law and Political Science Kharazmi t University of Tehran, Iran,

2 Master's degree in political science Abstrac Kharazmi t University of Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Purpose:The main objective of this article is to determine the Positive/Negative effects of digital transformation on the Islamic Republic of Iran's government. So, the study mainly examines the aspect of government's surveillance because of the broad scope of the topic.
Methods: The research is qualitative and based on the grounded theory method. The data collection method used in the theoretical sections is documentary- library. A semi-structured interview method was also used with a sample population made up of professors, experts, as well as some staff in related fields in order to assess the collected data and their compliance with the Iranian government. Additionally, the information gathered from the Interviews has been analyzed using three phases of qualitative coding.
Findings:The study's findings demonstrated that, although Iran remains significantly behind its regional and global rivals in this field, digitalism has had profoundly positive and negative effects on the government's surveillance in that country.
Conclusion: As a Conclusion, is seems digital technologies will also aid in ensuring the security of the society in a nation like Iran in terms of surveillance. Another point is that creating legal frameworks for data access and facilitating people activities in cyber spaces are both necessary for enhancing the government's capacity for digital surveillance. At last, taking into account the current state of Iran society, establishing trust between individuals through the legal frameworks is a crucial and fundamental tenet in the government's surveillance and use of data gathered.

Keywords

References

Ajamoglu, Daron and James Robinson (2013). Why nations fail? Translated by Mohsen Mirdamadi and Mohammad Hossein Naimipour. Tehran; Rozaneh publications. (In Persian)
Andrews, Evan. (2019). Who Were the Luddites? HISTORY. Retrieved 2021, Jan 5, from https://www.history.com/news/who-were-the-luddites
 BBC Persian (2012). governments request from Facebook about the information of tens of thousands of users, Retrieved on September 6, 2012, from https://www.bbc.com/persian/world/2013/08/130827_u08_facebook_user_data
Bellaby, Ross. (2012, February). What's The Harm? The Ethics of Intelligence Collection. Intelligence and National Security, 27(1), 93-177.
Chin, Josh & Lin, Liza. (2017). China’s All-Seeing Surveillance State Is Reading Its Citizens’ Faces. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2020, August  14 From https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-all-seeing-surveillance-state-feared-in-the-west-is-a-reality-in-china-1498493020?mod=article_re
Castells, Manuel (2009). Communication Power. Oxford University Press.
Delfanti, Alessandro and Adam Arvidsson (2019). Introduction to Digital Media. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Frankopen, Peter (2019). Silk roads, world history from a new perspective. Translated by Hossein Afshar, Tehran: Markaz Publishing. (In Persian)
Haggerty, Kevin D & Samatas, Minas. (2010). Surveillance and Democracy. New York: Routledge.
Holmes, Aaron. (2021). 533 million Facebook users' phone numbers and personal data have been leaked online. Insider, Retrieved 2021, Jan 22 From  https://www.businessinsider.com/stolen-data-of-533-million-facebook-users-leaked-online-2021-4?r=US&IR=T
IRNA (2017). - Cyber-crimes in the country increased by 900%. Retrieved 22 December 2022, from Islamic Republic News Agency website. (In Persian)
Kissinger, Henry, Eric Schmidt and Daniel Huttenlocher (2021). The Age of AI and Our Human Future. Tehran: Parse Book Publishing. (In Persian)
Lennon, Hailey. (2021). The False Narrative of Bitcoin’s Role in Illicit Activity. Forbes. Retrieved 2021, Jan 22 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/haileylennon/2021/01/19/the-false-narrative-of-bitcoins-role-in-illicit-activity/
Mazzetti, Mark. Perlroth, Nicole & Bergman, Ronen. (2019). It Seemed Like a Popular Chat App. It’s Secretly a Spy Tool. The New York Times. Retrieved 2020, Aug 14 from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/22/us/politics/totok-app-uae.html
McIver, William J & Elmagarmid, Ahmed K. (2020). ADVANCES IN DIGITAL GOVERNMENT Technology, Human Factors, and Policy. Boston: KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS.
Memarzadeh Tehran, Gholamreza; Mohammad Mobini and Mehdi Faqihi(2017). E-government. Tehran: Andishehay Goharbar Publications. (In Persian)
Ransom, Harry Howe. (2014). The Intelligence Establishment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Safari, Hossein; Gholamreza Khosh Sima; Ayub Mohammadian; Adel Moslehi; Mohammad Kazem haki, Emad Farazmand and Alireza Tamizi (2012). E-Government Maturity Model. Ministry of Commerce of Iran. Management Knowledge Monthly, No. 63, 53-78. (In Persian)
Mohammadpour, Ahmed (2015). Anti-Method:Philosophical Backgrounds and Practical Procedures in Qualitative Methodology. Qom: Logos Publishing. (In Persian)
Schneier, Bruce. (2015). Data and Goliath the Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World. New York: Norton & Company.
Schroeder, Ralph (2018). Social Theory after the Internet Media, Technology and Globalization. UCL press university college London.
- Sebestyen, Victor (2022). The revolutions of 1989, the fall of the Soviet empire in Europe. Translated by Bijan Ashtari. Tehran: Saless publication (In Persian)
Simeon, J. Yates & Ronad, E. Rice. (2020). The oxford Handbook of digital technology and Society. New York: Oxford University Press.
Snowden, Edward. (2019, september 17). Edward Snowden On Trump, Privacy, And Threats to Democracy. ]Video File[. Retrieved 2021, 20 Agust from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9yK1QndJSM .
Tabnak news agency website (2016). Telegram sold the information of Iranian users to America and Israel. Retrieved on November 8, 2022 from http://www.tabnakyazd.ir/fa/news/559546/     (In Persian)
Tejarat News Agency (2019). Why was Telegram filtered? Retrieved on 22 December 2022  https://tejaratnews.com/startup/  . . (In Persian)
Thomsen, Frej.k, (2019, October). The Concepts of Surveillance and sousveillance: a critical analysis. Social Science Information, 53(4), 701-703.
Van Dijck, José; Thomas Poel, and Martijn de Waal (2018). The Platform Society; PUBLIC VALUES IN A CONNECTIVE WORLD. Oxford University Press.
Van loon, Joost (2008). Media Technology; Critical Perspectives, issues in Cultural and Media Studies. McGrow hill Open University press.
Young Journalists Club website (2019). What is the story of signal filtering in Iran? Retrieved on November 8, from https://www.yjc.news/fa/news/7643585/.(In Persian)
Journal of Iran Futures Studies
Volume 8, Issue 1 - Serial Number 14
September 2023
Pages 81-107

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics