GLOBAL CONTROL AND CENSORSHIP

The »Global Control and Censorship« exhibition, which was on display at the ZKM from the end of 2015 to July 2016 as part of the GLOBALE, opened in the Estonian capital on 28th April. Visitors to the Tallinna Kunstihoone – Tallinn Art Hall – thus were also able to examining the subject of global monitoring and censorship in the digital era. 

Knowledge is power. But those who control the flow of information have the greatest power of all. The digitalization of all areas of life and its networking in the infosphere have connected all people from all over the world. Each day, all kinds of content and data are created billion-fold and sent all over the world. Even during its creation, before it reaches its recipients, our data is picked up by private service providers and government services and used for their purposes.

Through mass data acquisition, global businesses benefit from the individual and social dependencies of their users. And with the convincing argument of security, government services strive unashamedly for the perfection and major expansion of their data collections.

Has subjection to all-powerful instances of monitoring and censorship already become part of the human condition, to the fundamental basis of our culture? In an emergent culture of suspicion, ubiquitous monitoring of citizens could cause resignation, self-censorship and assimilation through to silent complicity.