Techno-Authoritarianism: The Radical Right Movement, and the Normalization of Repressive AI-Based Surveillance Systems in Brazil, Israel, and Hungary

Over the past years, a series of reports produced by civil associations have highlighted the growing use of highly intrusive AI-based surveillance and monitoring systems by governments worldwide. Disguised as “smart” methods for crime control, these systems have spread to Western democracies under the rule of radical right-wing governments. The deployment of these systems, aligned with a series of institutional and democratic disruptions, establishes forms of repression against opponents, protesters, and minorities (black communities, LGBTQIA+ people, and immigrants). Thus, this study begins with the following question: How does the use and deployment of AI-based surveillance technologies by radical right-wing governments seem to enable and normalize an expansion of coercive measures and authoritarian structures? It aims to discuss the emerging concept of techno-authoritarianism by highlighting the growing application of AI-based systems to underpin surveillance practices, and state hacking in illiberal democracies, under the rule of radical right-wing governments. The perspective of techno-authoritarianism provides a broader framework for understanding the role of radical right-wing governments in the normalization of these systems. It reacts to the perspective of digital repression, which is limited to understanding the repressive expressions of non-Western authoritarian governments in exclusively digital environments. Firstly, from the perspective of the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), it explores the relationship between the rise of the global far right, political tensions, and the proliferation of invasive policing technologies. Secondly, it emphasizes the specificities of techno-authoritarianism, its alignment with the business model of big tech companies, and its silent agency. Finally, it examines techno-authoritarian practices that have taken place in Brazil, Israel, and Hungary in recent years. In doing so, it explores how the availability of tools such as Excel, First Mile, OSINT-Harpia, predictive policing, and facial recognition systems flourish in authoritarian contexts while creating conditions for new political dilemmas and repressive practices.