POL106 Wk 11: Surveillance Technologies and Digital Transnational Repression

What is digital transnational repression?

When digital technologies are used by authoritarian governments to monitor, harass, intimidate, and silence dissidents, activists, and critics who have fled abroad, extending their reach beyond their territorial borders

How is transnational repression viewed in Canada? Which source references this?

Transnational repression is still viewed as mostly part of election interference. The Foreign Interference Commissioner says that transnational repression undermines democracy by suppressing individual freedoms and challenging state sovereignty. Offline tactics involve surveillance, intimidation, denial of consular services, coercion by proxy, and harassment (Yana Gorokhovskaia and Grady Vaughan, 2025).

What is another factor the in the study of transnational repression that greater attention should be paid to? Which source references this?

The study of transnational repression should pay greater attention to the role of gender, since it has unique and disproportionate impacts on women. For example, high levels of personal abuse include sexist and misogynistic attacks that use spyware, malware, online harassment, and doxxing (revealing identifying information about someone online) (Siena Anstis and Émilie LaFlèche, 2025)

What are the two factors authoritarian regimes weaponize? What should be done about it?

Authoritarian regimes weaponize surveillance technology and patriarchal gender norms to silence female dissidents abroad. Therefore, protecting human rights in the digital age requires addressing both technological surveillance capabilities and the gendered contexts in which they are deployed.