The "authoritarian" digital virus is more deadly than the Corona virus

Among the many repercussions brought about by the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19); the addition of more human rights violations, especially the right to respect the privacy of individuals and their personal lives, by increasing rates of control over the behavior of individuals, and tracking their behavior and movements, especially in times of disease and epidemics as well It is now the case with the Corona virus.

Over the past weeks, several countries - especially in South Asia such as South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as China - have developed and used modern surveillance techniques aimed at tracking HIV-infected people and knowing their mixing circles, in order to combat it and stop its spread. Whereas, a country like Israel uses these technologies to control the movement of individuals, to track their movements and to know their whereabouts on the pretext of confronting the virus.

It is expected that countries, whether democratic or authoritarian, will resort to similar technologies during the coming stage, under the pretext of preserving public health and protecting their citizens from the risks of epidemics. Governmental bodies and institutions will have the right to access the medical records of individuals, and to know their health history, without prior permission from them as is customary.

Among what this means is our formal entry into the era of digital authoritarianism, which imposes more control and control over the behavior of individuals with healthy arguments and under medical pretexts.

If the matter is already present in authoritarian regimes that tolerate the personal rights of their citizens, without the slightest sense of responsibility or fear of accountability, then that authoritarian behavior will extend to include countries usually described as democracy and constitutional rule, which is based - among many things - on the issue of respecting the privacy of individuals , As an inherent right that cannot be violated or derogated from.

And if we have witnessed - in the past - similar cases in which democratic countries have used techniques of controlling individuals in a manner that violated their privacy, similar to what happened in America after the events of September 11, 2001, when the American administration at that time permitted the privacy of individuals under the pretext of fighting terrorism.

This was exposed by Edward Snowden, a technology expert who worked for the CIA in 2013, and revealed the extent of the US federal government's penetration into the private lives of citizens, through technologies and digital platforms to spy on them without their knowledge. And even spying on leaders and politicians outside the United States.

More surprisingly, it is the defense of some western experts and researchers working in the medical and technical field about the option of their countries resorting to imposing more control and control over the movement of their citizens, under the pretext of protecting them from the risks of epidemics, as did Nicholas Wright, a neurosurgeon who specializes in medical technology who He works at the Georgetown University Medical Center.

Wright published an article - in Foreign Affairs - stating that the "Covid-19" pandemic requires countries (both authoritarian and democratic) to increase medical controls over citizens. Wright claims that this oversight is in the interest of society in terms of health and economic, and cites this as it happened when fighting similar epidemics during the past two centuries, especially in Britain.

This, after that, contributed to increasing the control of European countries by their citizens by setting up written records of their injuries and diseases, in order to refer to and benefit from them in combating epidemics, during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Wright believes - with unrivaled simplicity - that the resort of states to impose more control will not be for bad purposes, but rather falls within what he calls "benign use"; as he described it. He defends his view by evoking the CIA's internal espionage program on the eve of the events of September 11, and he has contributed, he says, to reducing and possibly preventing terrorist attacks on the United States.

To avoid criticism that could be directed at such an approach, Wright promotes a new concept of "democratic control", which, according to him, is a necessity that democratic countries, especially America and Britain, should resort to by expanding the uses of "artificial intelligence" techniques.

The problem here lies not in expanding the control of individuals, regardless of the arguments and justifications given for achieving this; rather, it is in its transformation from exception to becoming a basic rule, so that it is legitimized and institutionalized within democratic systems. This is harmful to the most important principles on which these systems are based, and it is the principle of respect for freedoms and personal rights, foremost of which is the right to privacy.

What is more, is the use of this infringement on the rights of individuals in democratic systems in order to justify human rights violations in authoritarian regimes, especially in our Arab region, which is always looking for such exceptions and promoting them as a basis in dealing with their citizens. It is true that repressive regimes do not need to justify their behavior, especially in front of their citizens; however, more violations of the fundamental rights of individuals - especially in countries with a democratic reputation - will increase the legitimacy, justification, and institutionalization of these violations in our countries.

Democratic states will not be unable to find ways to control their citizens, whether through modern technological techniques that are difficult to verify, or by imposing new life rules that contribute to violating their freedoms and personal rights, under the pretext of public safety; which means that the digital authoritarian “virus” has not It is confined only to repressive states, whether in our region or outside it, but it also affects democratic states, which may weaken their immunity and political legitimacy.

And if the new Corona virus has infected many millions so far, the "digital authoritarian" virus will strike the whole world from east to west, and it will be difficult to treat or find a viable vaccine for it in the coming decades.