THE RISE OF DIGITAL AUTHORITARIANISM: SOCIAL MEDIA, SURVEILLANCE, AND STATE CONTROL IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

Power in the digital age has undergone a deep transformation when it comes both to how increasingly democratic governments and authoritarian regimes exercise power in the 21st century. This research paper elaborates on this concept titled digital authoritarianism that looks into how ‘strategic use’ of a set of digital technologies like social media, surveillance tools, artificial intelligence, and censorship is exercised for monitoring, manipulating, and suppressing public discourse. At one-point, digital platforms were seen as empowering and helping democracy. Now, states are using them to enhance their grip on power and cut off opposition. The study uses a qualitative case study approach to find out how China, Russia, India, Turkey, and the United States use digital tools to influence opinions and restrict civil rights. It employs theories of panopticons, networked authoritarianism, and critical media studies in order to reveal how digital repression works and how the boundaries of state power are shifting. Additionally, it shows new forms of resistance developing, from cyberoptimism to digital literacy campaigns to the world's embrace of internet freedom and data rights. This study fills an interdisciplinary scholarship expanding on authoritarian governance, digital media, and surveillance capitalism. It demands urgent policy attention, stringent international regulation and the creation of ethical frameworks in order to protect democratic values, privacy and human rights in the ever more digitized world.