Surveillance is everywhere—from security cameras to smart doorbells, trackers in our phones to alarming databases. A group of privacy activists and human rights experts have now put together a toolkit for writers who “want to write more dynamic stories that challenge fascist repression via surveillance tech,” as a press release puts it.
The Stop Surveillance Tech Copaganda Toolkit was created by privacy activists and human rights experts, working with a fascinating group of collaborators: the Decentralized Web (DWeb), DragonCon, RightsCon communities, and Strange Horizons. The kit itself is a collection of stories, analyses of the stories, reactions, “and incitement.” The toolkit’s appendices include everything from guidelines on contacting experts to a list of relevant books, movies, and films.
The stories were selected by a panel of judges and include work by Christine Phan, Cecilia Ananías Soto, Rich Larson, Christopher R. Muscato, and Corey Jae White and Maddison Stoff. They appear both in a special issue of Strange Horizons and as a special issue of COMPOST Magazine.
In a statement, project editor and producer Lia Holland, who is also campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future, said:
A lot of surveillance tech is snake oil—but when it works, it’s even worse for human rights. Decisions about whether these technologies come into our communities are being made by the rich and powerful—and with the complicity of storytellers in writing free propaganda for the corporations and governments intent on Orwellian control of every moment of our lives. It is untrue that most surveillance tech actually works as its marketers say it will, or that only the so-called good guys will use it. It’s well past time that creative people put our minds to disrupting these false narratives. This is our clap back to surveillance tech’s capitulation to fascism, and we’re calling for every storyteller to get on board.
Writer Christopher R. Muscato said, “As creators, we bear responsibility in the narratives we enforce, propagate, or choose to dismantle. There is no such thing as a passive story, nor an apolitical one. Every word we commit to paper is an act of either acquiescence or defiance. As an author, I encourage my peers to more actively engage in the impact of the futures they are imagining, and I’m proud to be a part of a toolkit that offers a great place to start.”
You can explore the toolkit here.
