- Civil society organizations (CSOs) are adapting to AI-driven surveillance and algorithmic bias through three primary tactics: co-opting, countering, and innovating.
- IRIS commissioned 10 global case studies to examine how CSOs in the Global Majority navigate technology-infused authoritarianism.
- Strategies emphasize shifting focus to hyperlocal issues, building transnational solidarity, and creating ephemeral, decentralized infrastructures.
Tactics for Civil Society
- Co-opting: Organizations leverage technology for their own goals, such as Brazil’s Fogo Cruzado using AI to test messaging against police violence.
- Countering: Groups resist digital surveillance; for example, Derechos Digitales campaigns against facial recognition in Brazil and Chile.
- Innovating: Activists develop new narrative forms, such as El Salvador’s Alharaca using immersive sound and board games to engage audiences offline. Hong Kong activists use humor and cryptic language to bypass AI monitoring.
Strategic Patterns
- Hyperlocal vs. Transnational: A simultaneous move toward localized grassroots engagement to avoid national state scrutiny and building cross-border networks to share tactics and counter global authoritarian trends.
- Flexibility: Emphasis on "ephemeral infrastructures"—small, informal networks that can dissolve and reconfigure to avoid singular points of vulnerability.
- Collaboration: The necessity of forming diverse alliances to support narrative campaigns and defend against digital threats, described as an "infrastructure of resistance."
The Intersection of Power
- Narrative, technology, and politics are viewed as inseparable, with civil society functioning as narrative workers, technologists, and political organizers simultaneously.
- While AI-enabled surveillance and "broligarch"-controlled platforms present significant challenges, successful adaptation by activists demonstrates the potential for building democratic power.