38. On Liberty | Lydia Khalil | China's COVID Digital Authoritarianism

China has responded to the coronavirus by turbocharging its surveillance state -- and it has successfully sold its new brand of 'digital authoritarianism' as a best practice model to the rest of the world.

Governance and security expert Lydia Khalil will join us for Season 3 of On Liberty, this Wednesday, 3 February 12:30 pm. Lydia will discuss how the coronavirus gave China the opportunity to put "tech-enabled authoritarianism" into practice on a large scale. She warns that those who praise China's coronavirus response risk promoting "a growing acceptance of mass surveillance, habituation to restrictions on liberties and fewer checks on the collection and use of personal data by the state, even after the public health crisis subsides."

Join us as we ask what is digital authoritarianism? How has China used artificial intelligence to monitor its citizens? And what lessons can Australia take for its brewing battle with Google and Facebook?

Lydia is Research Fellow in the West Asia Program at the Lowy Institute and manages the Institute's core partnership with the Global Network on Extremism & Technology. Read her recent Lowy Institute research paper here: Digital Authoritarianism, China and COVID.

📖 See more from CIS here: https://www.cis.org.au/

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⏲️ Missed last week? Watch and listen to Episode 37, with Gad Saad:
https://youtu.be/AC3fscF_nA4

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