Event date:
Wednesday 10 October to Thursday 11 October
Time:
13:00
Location:
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, 2 Hope Park Square
Dark Socials, Dark Publics: Encrypted Messaging Platforms for Citizen Governance in Bangalore, India
This talk draws on 8 months of fieldwork in Bangalore, India, to explore how citizen activists are using encrypted mobile instant messaging platforms (e.g. WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram) to form chat groups comprising citizens, local political leaders, and members of the media. While these groups arose as a practical means of addressing routine governance failures in Bangalore, they also challenge accepted theories of both social media and the public sphere, offering new ways of being a citizen, a government, and a member of a community in the digital era.