I read this book a little while ago but was reminded of it recently when I read in the news about a data hack of police files in China which made public vast quantities of photographs and documents relating to the detention of thousands of Uyghurs. The author, Darren Byler, is Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and he is a leading expert on Uyghur society. At its heart, this harrowing book is about the desperate plight of an ethnic minority group.
There are dark echoes from history and Byler shows us the way in which modern technology is used to facilitate the systems of control and oppression making it possible at a speed and scale unimaginable only a few years ago. In the book, we are presented with evidence of the sprawling networks of surveillance and monitoring supported not only by firms based in China, but also those in the West.
“As they told me about the technological enclosure of their homeland, I saw the way technologies of reeducation made Muslims detainable. The surveillance system itself produced assumptions of guilt, of pre-criminality"
Byler does not want us to be bystanders, or worse, ignorant of what is happening right now, even as you read this. He wants us to understand the role played by many different actors, not all of whom will have set out to have their technology used for such malign purposes. He wants this because he recognises that we need collectively to take an interest in and responsibility for real-world outcomes of technological developments, especially in countries with poor human rights track records.
We have been reminded of the shocking speed at which human rights can be trampled on with events in Afghanistan and Ukraine in recent months. We have also seen the tragedy of the human stories behind the headlines. The rights that so many of us enjoy, including data rights, must never be taken for granted. They need to be nurtured, cared for and fought for.
“To counteract the increasing banality, the everydayness, of automated racialization, the harms of biometric surveillance around the world must first be made apparent. The lives of the detainable must be made visible at the edge of power over life. Then the role of world-class engineers, investors, and public relations firms in the unthinking of human experience…must be made clear. The webs of interconnection – the way Xinjiang stands behind Seattle – must be made thinkable”
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Indulge