The use of social media definitely advances considerable problems with regard to privacy, human rights and data protection. Negative political implications encompass a strain between private corporations with general data analytics capacities and humanitarian and other relief organizations. Humanitarian organizations are progressively frustrated with the private firms incoming during crises, and they leave once the crisis is over.

Big data is also depicted as disrupting existing social relations and business practice. Legal contexts controlling these relations are also significantly impacted. They lose their effectiveness and are criticized for being outdated and presenting a hurdle for the adoption of new technologies. Big data is facilitated by the advancements in disseminated computing like cloud technology that facilitates processing of the enormous amount of data at much higher speed. Nonetheless, big data cannot be restricted to the factors of velocity and volume. The inducement of big data is that it offers greater efficiency through more fine-grained and focused control (Bernal, 2016).

The use of big data analytics in human rights role establishes intrinsic risks and strains around privacy. The approaches that encompass big data collection and analysis can be utilized without the consensus, knowledge, or understanding of data subjects. Hence, the utilization of big data analytics to advance human rights risks infringing privacy rights and norms and result in personal harms. Big data has been used to perpetuate oppressive practices by the authoritarian regimes. Accordingly, big data analytics in the human rights context has the capacity to create similar ethical dilemmas and anxieties as unfitting state or company surveillance (Bernal, 2016).

Examining the legitimate application of big data mining in human rights work relies on comprehending what the right to privacy protects. Big data analytics entails installing different approaches and tools meant to establish patterns, behavioral gages or identities of persons, groups, or populace. Organizing data, undertaking statistical modeling, and developing conceptions change otherwise inexplicable datasets into actionable information. It is evident that big data analytics poses a considerable threat to privacy (Bernal, 2016). The agency undertaking the analysis could obtain more information regarding a person’s life that would be anticipated by an ordinary citizen, hence infringing the right to determine the flow and utilization of one’s personal information. By merging different data sources, these agencies can be able to connect online personalities to real-world personalities. One of the fundamental questions that need to be addressed when utilizing big data for human rights reasons is the degree to which the urgency of the need being addressed affects the decisions to use imperfect data and risk privacy infringements (Nersessian, 2018).

Soon after ascending to power, Fidel Castro regime quickly established control over telecommunications and the mass media through expropriation, manipulation, as well as economic sanctions. The ICTs in this state has always been owned and operated by the government to serve the political objectives of the Cuban Revolution. The regime lacks a central agency involved in censorship of the media, but the monitoring of the content is carried out at an editorial level, where a majority of the editors have connections to the power structure and stake the perspectives of the regime elites. The Cuban regime has also been involved in developing strong control over the internet. By as early as 1996, the Cuban regime had decided to take control of the internet and the mass media to perpetuate their authoritarian agenda (Bernal, 2016).

Much of Cuba’s big data control strategy has comprised of reactive state reactions to the various challenges. Apart from the strategy of access restriction, the regime has also facilitated internet development in the regions it considers priorities. Also, the government has purposed to channel the growth of internet usage so that it can utilize it to serve the political goals of the revolution. The use of big data serves to reinforce and expand the state authority. Part of the usage of information from big data is to perpetuate internet propaganda.

Conclusion

The cases of Cuba, Vietnam, China, and other states have illustrated how authoritarian regimes can counter the numerous challenges posed by internet development. The current state of each regime has been influenced by the information obtained from its citizens and the strategies for controlling the internet’s use and development. These regimes have used big data mining and analytics to serve state interests and perpetuate their authoritarian goals. The main difference between the approaches used by these authoritarian governments is based on their reactive measures of control and how they seek to establish total domination over its citizens. For instance, Cuba strategy is based on the control of access to the internet, encompassing a prohibition on discrete public access and the wary selection of institutions that are permitted to connect to the internet. On the other hand, countries such as China has facilitated more widespread access to the internet and has attempted to restrict the channel’s possible challenges through a combination of censorship, content filtering, dissuasion, monitoring and promotion of self-censorship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Bernal, P. (2016). Data gathering, surveillance and human rights: recasting the debate. Journal of Cyber Policy, 1(2), pp.243-264.

Nersessian, D. (2018). The law and ethics of big data analytics: A new role for international

human rights in the search for global standards. Business Horizons, 61(6), pp.845-854.