User:Pedro Sá Couto/Graduate Research Seminar/Chapter 01 28122019

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https://pad.xpub.nl/p/psc_chapter_01_03

Chapter 01

PART 1 – Bridging between Surveillance and Publishing

Point A: Alternative publishing channels became fundamental to engage locally, spread information and freely publish thoughts

Argument 1 : Parallel publishing streams

Overcoming repressive power structures with publishing

Impact of tech in fast reproduction

Zine Culture and self-published media

Argument 2 : Memes as a tool to free speech

Memes as an easy way to propagate an idea

Counter censorship memes

There is a general discontect online and with memes users are demanding original content

Point B: Analyzing strategies that enable digital access

Argument 1 : Archives and libraries provide spaces to access media that come from alternative channels

From shadow libraries to .onion libraries, how their structure influences who gets to access them.

Preserving sensitive information and its' digital memory, how do archives document and organize perishable material?

Research focus

Linking how printed media was used to challenge repressive power structures and what communities still use alternative publishing channels. What are the efforts to preserve these kinds of media and how are they digitally available?

Summary

In this chapter, I will start by creating a link with the introduction where I delved into governmental surveillance and Digital authoritarianism. From understanding how the internet is an important asset to be controlled and to control the flow of information I will compare it to the press control in authoritarian regimes. This sets as a base ground from where I will explore how printed media played a key role in the past to tackle oppressive regimes and its use to bypass censorship. I will also point out some strategies that were used to share different media within this context. With the introduction of technology as the mimeograph or the photocopier, communities found a way to share printed publications faster, more accurately and cheaper. I will explore what these developments meant to them and I will be taking the example of the zine culture to explain it within a concrete context. Later on, the introduction of the internet opened a space where the propagation of files and political ideas started to occur more easily and within a bigger audience. I will finish this first chapter by delving into some strategies implemented in digital archives and libraries providing spaces to access media that come from alternative channels. It is important to understand what efforts have already been put in place to archive illegal and extra-legal documents. While creating these archives, strategies are set to limit who accesses them, and how technology plays a political role within them. What is the current impact of these? What are its roles while preserving the digital memory of sensitive information?

BODY

THE HISTORY OF PRINT TO BYPASS CENSORSHIP (750 words)

It is set that the introduction of the internet changed how we relate among ourselves. Digital media have been responsible for some of the most wide-ranging changes in society over the past quarter-century. (Schroeder, 2018). Our notion of control has changed and our perception of physical spaces tied to new media maybe be changing how we perceive distance. (Munster, 2006) I remember when I wanted to have a pirated copy of a film I would physically have to move. I recall first seeing them, with a transparent case and a poorly printed cover and a few still with text in Spanish, the neighboring country from where I am from. The film would most commonly be recorded with a low-quality camera in a cinema and sold to you burnt in a DVD. This example of how our access has been shaped helps to understand the shift that exists when it comes to establishing digital relationships. This understanding of the internet as a vehicle of information is key to understanding its value for authorative regimes and its use. Vehicles of information because of their ability of talking to different masses have always been desirable strategies to work with when shaping, bending and creating political discourse and propaganda.

To understand the issue of the internet being used as an effective tool for enforcing surveillance by authoritarian regimes we must step back. While this is happening we must delve into how censorship was applied in repressive regimes way before the internet. And also how it still functions as a political mirror applied by these countries. For example in China and Turkey reactive measures like restricting Internet access, filtering content, monitoring online behavior, or even prohibiting Internet use entirely are put in place. (Kalathil and Boas, 2001). By comparing these measures to what happaned in the press before we are able to establish connections and similar counter-strategies used.

Like we see nowadays with the use of VPNs and internet extentions to bypass surveillance we can compare it to the Efforts like the underground press were a strategy to cope with a repressive post-war press. Publications were produced without official approval, illegally or against the wishes of a dominant (governmental, religious, or institutional) group. (Miles, 2016)

03- Samizdat

Different media have always been weapons for distributing information, culture and believes.

In Portugal during the Salazar dictatorship from 1933 till 1974. The Lapis Azul stands out as a symbol of censorship during the Estado Novo regime. What media were used to create political discourse within this context?

I can take an example of how forbidden music used to be smuggled on Soviet Russia. They would write directly onto old X-ray films and make them cross the borders more easily.

ALTERNATIVE PUBLISHING STREAMS (1000 words)

What is the comtemporary relavance of this?

But also cyber bulling. Platform discontent. Physical meeting, a place to meet around.

Safe, not traceble or we thought.

How technology shaped this parallel streams. Mimeograph and photocopier brief history

Concrete examples

01 : Factsheet 5 was a periodical featuring brief reviews of zines, along with contact information. Mike Gunderloy founded the publication in 1982 and published 44 issues through 1991

02 : Zines are self-published media, either with original or appropriated images and texts with small-circulation and a small print run. Why are these so important for communities?What roles do they take?Why do we need to preserve the opportunity for them to be created?

MEMES AS A TOOL TO FREE SPEECH (750 words)

Memes function as a virus, an easy way to propagate an idea. But they are used by both left and right wings to spread ideas and political agendas “Memes play a distinct role in protest; they seem to be to the resistance of today what “political posters” were to yesterday” (Metahaven, 2014)

Concrete examples

01 : Lama Meme in China "When pronounced one way, it refers to an innocuous mythical animal that is apparently related to the Bolivian alpaca. However, when pronounced another way, it means ‘fuck your mother’ (肏你妈)" (Wu, 2019)

02 : Left parties are watermarking memes so that they cannot be monetized.

How does this impact the meme culture by its self?

Why is this happening?

What is the right-wing approach to the situation?

How is the internet demanding for original content creation?

ANALYZING STRATEGIES THAT ENABLE ACCESS (1000 words)

Link to above! Strategies are put together to publish online anonymously. But to do it consistently demands a place to access this material. When we publish material either in a library or an archive we expect that someone will be able to access it. How online spaces are structured plays a key role in who gets to access them. When thinking about extra-legal publishing streams we have to consider how it will shape how others get to this material During this chapter, I will explore strategies as extra-legal libraries and unindexed archives. These resources are able to open gates to access walls. How are they structured and how do they protect themselves and their users?

Argument 1 : Archives and libraries provide spaces to access media that come from alternative channels

Example 01 : Different organizing structures allow different things, from shadow libraries to .onion libraries

01: Library Genesis: Within their context, they seem to distance themselves from the idea of bringing academic research for people without access "If you are from India, Pakistan or Iran, you may have difficulties with finances and be tempted to place such requests, then this answer is for you. There may exist some sites on the net that can help you find certain books upon request, but we simply cannot do this. If you need the book urgently and it's missing in LG, please, do not rely on us and try to get it from some other place." (Library Genesis: Miner’s Hut / Барак старателей • View topic - Sitemap: downloads, services, manuals, FAQ, n.d.)

02: aaaaarg.fail is used by researchers, academics, students, people interested in theory. You can only become a member by invitation. As a member, you not only can upload and download but also request new titles through a messageboard.

03: Libraries like "The library" http://www.libraryqtlpitkix.onion/ and "Clockwise libraries" https://clockwise3rldkgu.onion operate within the invisible web, or hidden web are parts of the World Wide Web. Their content is not indexed by standard web engines, instead, these libraries are indexed in specific web pages just as "http://mx7rwxcountermqh.onion/". In this index, you can find an annotated list of URLs, with a small description of what each of these links is focused on.

Example 02 : Archives that document and organize perishable sensitive information preserving its' digital memory

01: Archives like Cryptome allow publications that are prohibited by governments worldwide

02: Syrian Archive is responsible for collecting, verifying, preserving, and investigating visual documentation of human rights violations in Syria, the Syrian Archive establishes a verified database of human rights violations, and to act as an evidence tool for legally implementing justice and accountability as concept and practice in Syria. (About | Syrian Archive, n.d.)

03: leftove.rs is a project that seeks to create a shared online archive of radical, anti-oppressive, and working-class movements, and the material traces they have left. ()

MayDay Rooms is an educational charity founded as a safe haven for historical material linked to social movements, experimental culture and the radical expression of marginalized figures and groups. It was set up to safeguard historical material and connect it with contemporary struggle. (MayDay Rooms, n.d.)