Digital world seen moving into ‘authoritarian space’

Digital rights abuses are made worse by power imbalances by tech giants in terms of who can access and control users’ data, said Pallero, such as Facebook and WhatsApp being the main portal to the Internet in many developing countries. — Business photo created by jannoon028 - www.freepik.com

LONDON: From blocking websites to forcing companies to share user data, governments – including democracies – are increasingly resorting to “authoritarian” methods to control the Internet, tech experts warned on Nov 18.

Governments like China and Russia are blocking social media content, requiring firms to submit to data surveillance, and silencing journalists and activists online, panelists told the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference.