It was winter of 2050, and with climate change biting harder than envisaged, the United Nations invited environmentalists and scholars across the world to brainstorm and come up with sustainable solutions. As a creative writer, I was invited to deliver a poem.
After a 14-hour flight, the pilot of the airbus descended peacefully. Accompanied by my grandson who was studying for a border control degree, we joined the queue at the immigration section of the airport.
“Next on the line please”, beckoned the female officer on duty
Approaching her desk, I handed over our passports with a cheerful smile.
While we stood waiting, she scanned through our passport stealing sideway glances at us.
“Sorry sir. I have go upstairs to resolve an issue”, she said.
“Okay”, I replied.
“Grandpa”
”Yes son”
“Please what are the roles or borders in ordering spaces?”
After clearing my throat, I began thus…
One of the vital roles of a border is that it defines the limit of space. For the past hour, we’ve been unable to proceed for the conference due to the limiting constraints of traditional borders, which establishes where one space ends and another begins. This helps in the formation of identity, ownership and governance.
Secondly, borders play regulatory roles that control access, movement and behaviour. Without borders, people will have free access to move dangerous weapons and drugs capable of endangering the life of people within a geographical location.
Border plays symbolic roles that foster cultural and psychological significance.
Border plays dynamic roles that make them to be contested, negotiated or redefined. A vivid example is the war between Russia and Ukraine.
What then could be alternative technical and discursive landscapes of control and power?
Alternative technical and discursive landscapes of control and power refers to systems, practices or frameworks that reshape how authority, regulation and influence operate beyond traditional borders, institutions or state centric models.
Technical landscapes:
Technological corporations like Meta wield great influence over information, visibility and behaviour. In 2024 for instance, a friend of mine who always threw football banters on Facebook had his account suspended for a period after being reported. Although his aim for posting such articles was for fun, he overstepped his boundary.
Surveillance infrastructures like CCTV and biometric data also enforces control without traditional borders in decentralized patterns in the virtual world.
Additionally, instead of power to reside in traditional borders in this digital age, it now resides in data centres and cloud networks.
Before the advent of Artificial Intelligence, the control of cities rested upon the shoulders of governments. With innovations embedding sensor networks and AI systems to regulate traffic, limit energy use and police, the dynamics of control is gradually shifting from government to corporate entities.
Discursive landscapes:
After the Colonial era, the landscape of indigenous epistemologies gained ground. In this landscape, ownership is replaced by stewardship to challenge Western centric discourse through the promotion of relational, land based or collective modes of being.
Instead of wielding force to exercise power, economic incentives are used to shape behaviour through freedom of choice. It can take the form of privatization, deregulation or individual responsibility.
Discursive landscapes could also take the form of Neoliberal discourse, which promotes market logic over state control.
In the case of security and risk discourses, there is the promotion of pre-emptive governance. Populations in this landscape are managed through risk narratives.
Technocratic rationality is yet another that sidelines democratic processes in favour of objective data. Control in this landscape is structured to be neutral but often with doses of exclusivity.
Widening Inequality in emerging alternative landscapes:
Due to the lack of democratic oversight over emerging alternative technical and discursive landscapes, corporations are beginning to act as lords through the engagement of algorithms to control who uses and what content is seen. This, instead of creating an equitable world, is widening the inequality border in the virtual world.
On the afternoon of January 8th, 2021, Twitter made history when it decided to suspend the account of Donald Trump on the account of policy breach.
Trumps “Fight like hell” comment at the stop the steal rally for instance was made as far back as January 2018. No wonder, some Federal judges concerned over the ethicality of the situation took out time to debate whether those comments were “arguable incitement” to violence.
Before the ban, executives and lower level employees at Twitter privately admitted that neither of the President's tweets violated the platform rules.
Even leaders across the West felt that Twitter was setting a dangerous precedent against a sitting Head of State.
“I don’t want to live in a democracy where the key decisions were made by private players. I want it to be decided by a law voted by your representatives, or by regulation, governance, democratically discussed and approved by democratic leaders”-Emmanuel Macron
In a similar vein, Mexico’s leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said, “I don’t like anybody being censored or taken away from the right to post a message on Twitter or Facebook. I don’t agree with that, I don’t accept that”.
Trump's “American Patriots” tweet suggested to Twitter's employees on the scaled Enforcement team that it might have violated her violence policy. With “American patriots” interpreted to mean refer to rioters- as opposed to the 70,000,000 great American patriots who voted for Trump, we need to channel our efforts to ensure democratization of power and control in this new border corridor.
On the contrary, many world leaders despite sending out dangerous tweets are allowed to continue using the platform.
Former Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari for instance incited violence against pro-Biafran groups when he tweeted that “Those of us in the fields for 30 months, who went through the war, will treat them in the language they understand”. This tweet was deleted but Buhari wasn’t banned like Trump.
In 2018, Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei tweeted that:
Despite how inciting this was, Twitter neither banned nor deleted the tweet.
Two years later, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed said, “It was a right for Muslims to kill millions of French people”. Although Twitter deleted the tweet, it allowed the originator to remain on the platform.
What’s the implication of this action? It means with the spring up of alternative borders of control, many people globally will face exponential inequality in comparison to the traditional borders if power control is not regulated democratically.
Few days after the ban, Jack Dorsey wrote that Trump's ban “Sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power of an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation”.
After Elon Musk took control of Twitter in October 2022 in a $44 billion deal, he conducted a pool to get the opinion of users regarding the reinstatement of Trump. After the exercise, 51.8% representing more than 15 million Twitter users voted for the ban to be lifted.
Three hours later, the immigration officer returned with a sad countenance.
“I am very sorry! Your travel documents were rejected by our system. You will be deported by midnight”, she said.
Stunned by the news, I stood there confused with tears bathing my eyes.
“Grandpa, how are you going to deliver your presentation with the limitation of the traditional border barring us?”, asked my grandson.
“I don’t know son”.
“Eureka! I have an idea”, my grandson quipped.
“Really!”
“Yes Grandpa. During an elective course in my second year, representatives from the Euro-Asian border institute lectured me about the dynamic role technology plays in blurring borders in cyberspace. Despite the limitation of the physical border which has barred us from attending the conference physically, we can leverage on Zoom to actively participate virtually”.
“That’s true my son, I never thought in that line. Quickly set up the laptop and connect it to the United Nations Zoom link”.
In a moment, we were connected.
When I was called on, I explained the situation to the attendees and tendered my apology. My presentation went thus…
I long for a time
When political bottlenecks everywhere
Will forgo Cartesian border views
For evolving spaces
I long for a time
When everyone everywhere
Will overcome traditional barriers
To embrace emerging alternatives
I long for a time
When everyone everywhere
Will adopt sustainable practices
To overcome climate change
I long for a time
When everyone everywhere
Will have equal access
To control and power.
By midnight, my grandson and I were on a return flight back to our country. Despite the bitter encounter that was aggravated by the Cartesian view of static space, we took solace in the fact that we were able to leverage an alternative technical and discursive landscape to overcome the limitation of the traditional border.
References:
Deleuze, Gilles. “Postscript on the Societies of Control.” October, vol. 59, 1992, pp. 3–7.
Hardt, Michael, & Negri, Antonio. Empire. (2000)
Sassen, Saskia. Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages. (2006)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55597840
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/01/08/tech/trump-twitter-ban/index.html
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/IF/IF16/20230328/115561/HHRG-118-IF16-20230328-SD016.pdf