Prediction, pre-emption and limits to dissent: Social media and big data uses for policing protests in the United Kingdom

an article by Lina Dencik and Arne Hintz (Cardiff University, UK) and Zoe Carey (The New School, USA) published in New Media & Society Volume 20 Issue 4 (April 2018)

Abstract

Social media and big data uses form part of a broader shift from ‘reactive’ to ‘proactive’ forms of governance in which state bodies engage in analysis to predict, pre-empt and respond in real time to a range of social problems.

Drawing on research with British police, we contextualize these algorithmic processes within actual police practices, focusing on protest policing.

Although aspects of algorithmic decision-making have become prominent in police practice, our research shows that they are embedded within a continuous human–computer negotiation that incorporates a rooted claim to ‘professional judgement’, an integrated intelligence context and a significant level of discretion. This context, we argue, transforms conceptions of threats.

We focus particularly on three challenges:

• the inclusion of pre-existing biases and agendas,
• the prominence of marketing-driven software, and
• the interpretation of unpredictability.

Such a contextualized analysis of data uses provides important insights for the shifting terrain of possibilities for dissent.

Full text (PDF 18pp)

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