The Promise and Peril of Digital Security in the Age of Dictatorship
1 min read
Summary
In El Salvador, organisations which support the LGBTIQ+ community have been obliged to enhance their digital security as increased authoritarianism leads to escalating violence against members of the community.
Ultranationalist president Nayib Bukele’s criticism of “gender ideology” has provided a licence for police and military harassment and violence against LGBTIQ+ people, while hate crimes are obscured by the failure to collect statistics and increasing digital surveillance makes activism more difficult.
In response, digital security training and greater use of encryption and privacy tools such as VPNs and Signal are providing some protection for activists.
However, fear of government reprisals is making the work of campaigning and documenting violence more difficult.
