Technological neutrality: facial recognition and racism

Authors

  • Alex da Rosa University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi
  • Sara de Araújo Pessoa University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi
  • Fernanda da Silva Lima University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi

Keywords:

Japanese culture, Digital body, Confinement and creation

Abstract

As a consequence of social isolation policies, the current COVID-19 pandemic has intensified social inequalities and increased the usage of digital tools. A dual effect resulted from such a process: electronic devices being used as leisure objects and/or surveillance equipment. Thinking about the acceleration of the virtualization of processes promoted by the pandemic, the current article deals with the utilization of technological devices by formal instances of control in Brazil that reproduce racism, albeit positioning themselves as neutral. The research discusses the instrumentalization of a racist criminal policy, especially that of facial recognition devices with law enforcement purposes in five Brazilian states, according to a study conducted by Instituto Igarapé. Guided by the inductive method and thorough literature review, the research explores the dilution of racism via digital devices, raising a question about technological neutrality. Thus, the article presents a brief mapping of the Brazilian scenario about criminal policies on facial recognition, as well as their application. A survey was also carried on searching the states that have adopted these policies, and their preliminary conclusions. Nevertheless, an investigation was developed on how the instrumentalization of technological devices configures and composes an actuarial criminal policy capable of accentuating and multiplying in other instances the racism that pervades our society.

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Author Biographies

Alex da Rosa, University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi

He has a Law degree and studies control technologies and power devices at the University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazil. He is a member of the Andradiano Group of Critical Criminology, and active in social projects. He develops research from a philosophical approach, reflecting on modern ways of control, focusing on algorithms and information networks.

Sara de Araújo Pessoa, University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi

She holds a bachelor's degree in Law, a master's degree in Human Rights and Society, and is a member researcher in the Andradiano group of Critical Criminology. She is the assistant coordinator of the Center for Advanced Studies in Political Economy of Pena, researching the criminal issue from a critical, decolonial, and abolitionist perspective. She studies Latin American critical criminology intersecting with racial, gender, and class theories.

Fernanda da Silva Lima, University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazi

She has bachelor's, master's, and doctor's degrees in Law. She is a permanent professor in the Postgraduate Program in Law at the University of the Extreme South of Santa Catarina - UNESC, Brazil. She is a Full Professor of Human Rights, the vice leader of the Center for Studies in Human Rights and Citizenship, leader of the research group in Human Rights, Racial Relations and Feminisms, and a member of the Center for Ethnic-Racial, Afro-Brazilian, Indigenous and Minorities.

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Published

2020-12-19

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 21 (2020): V!21 We Have Never Been so Digital

Section

Ágora