From surveillance to 'sousveillance' in elections

New technologies are often associated with state surveillance of citizens. Mobile phones are no exception. Examples of surveillance and censorship include tapping phones and tracking journalists in China, and suspending all short message services (SMS) during elections in Cambodia.

But mobile phones can also reverse the process to enable 'sousveillance' – bottom-up monitoring of the state by citizens.

In 2007, 500 NGO election monitors were sent out with mobile phones to polling stations in Sierra Leone. Their job was to send reports via SMS/text messages. Benefits included rapid awareness of irregularities and unofficial voting tallies that could be compared with official results.

Less organised 'souveillance' also occurs. In the 2004 Ghanaian presidential elections, individual voters called radio phone-in shows by mobile to report intimidation or obstruction. This prompted a police response in a way that a direct call to the police might not have done – a reminder of the power of combining mobiles with other information and communication technologies. Similarly, combining mobile phone cameras with websites has proven effective in reporting electoral misdeeds in a number of countries.

See also

Mobile Phones and Social Activism, MobileActive.org, by Ethan Zuckerman, 2007
www.mobileactive.org/
mobile-phones-and-social-activism-ethan-zuckerman-white-paper

Texting It In: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones, MobileActive.org, by Katrin Verclas, 2007
www.mobileactive.org/texting-it-in

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