This wiki has had no edits or log actions made within the last 45 days and has been automatically marked as inactive. If you would like to prevent this wiki from being closed, please start showing signs of activity here. If there are no signs of this wiki being used within the next 15 days, this wiki will be closed in accordance to the Dormancy Policy (which all wiki founders accept when requesting a wiki). If this wiki is closed and no one reopens it 135 days from now, this wiki will become eligible for deletion. Note: If you are a bureaucrat, you can go to Special:ManageWiki and uncheck "inactive" yourself.OD0080
Writers silenced by surveillance: self-censorship in the age of big data
Nik Williams - 14 December 2018
We asked Scottish writers how online surveillance has impacted on their work. The answers we got were shocking
We know what censorship looks like: writers being murdered, attacked or imprisoned; TV and radio stations being shut down; the only newspapers parrot the state; journalists lost in the bureaucratic labyrinth to secure a license or permit; government agencies approving which novels, plays and poetry collections can be published; books being banned or burned or the extreme regulation of access to printing materials or presses. All of these damage free expression, but they leave a fingerprint, something visible that can be measured, but what about self-censorship? This leaves no such mark.
When writers self-censor, there is no record, they just stop writing or avoid certain topics and these decisions are lost to time. Without being able to record and document isolated cases the way we can with explicit government censorship, the only thing we can do is identify potential drivers to self-censorship.... See more
About openDemocracy
openDemocracy is an independent global media platform publishing up to 60 articles a week and attracting over 8 million visits per year.
Through reporting and analysis of social and political issues, openDemocracy seeks to educate citizens to challenge power and encourage democratic debate across the world. With human rights as our central guiding focus, and open-mindedness as our method, we ask tough questions about freedom, justice and democracy.
openDemocracy aim to help those fighting for their rights gain the agency to make their case and to inspire action.
