Maureen Webb Speaks at the 2024 Global Forum on Artificial Intelligence in Democracy, Governance and Elections

She is the author of the book “Coding Democracy: How Hackers Are Disrupting Power, Surveillance and Authoritarianism”

New York, October 3, 2024 – Maureen Webb explained, during her presentation at the VI Global Forum on Latin America and the Caribbean 2024, that there is an idea that the code is the law, “and that means that in a world of ubiquitous computing, the self-executing nature of the code will largely determine our relationships and rights and even our constitutional guarantees if we do not pay attention to it.”

“In other words, the power of the code to create norms, surpassing the power of the law, will determine the type of society in which we live and whether it will tend to be democratic. The code is designing the norms by which we live, but who controls the code? This for me is an urgent civic issue,” she said.

During her presentation, she explained that there is currently a struggle to build a coded world around us and that ordinary computers, users and citizens are at the mercy of code-makers. “And hackers are shamans in this space because they possess both the skills and the inclination to mediate between the code and us,” Webb said.

The specialist said that, although the hacker stereotype is believed to be a dangerous nihilistic element in society, they come from all political backgrounds. “They are found throughout the technological world, working for large security platforms, in their own startups, in medium-sized companies and in academia,” she explained.

“Hackers believe that one should be able to take apart digital systems and any other system, interrogate them, study and challenge them, improve them and share added improvements with others,” Webb stressed.

She stressed that they have made an immense contribution to the development of free software. In other words, “a code that can be studied, developed, reused and shared. And this free software is really the idea that the best code is created with production in a common space.”

Webb also explained that “hackers have been at the forefront of net neutrality, and perhaps net neutrality is the most important digital right or issue today.”

“What we have learned in the 21st century is that there is an undeniable, centralizing and totalizing dynamic of digital technology, and with the emergence of increasingly sophisticated AI, it will only get worse,” she reiterated.

She also explained that “AI is a field of computer intelligence that allows for knowledge, representation, reasoning, planning, perception and natural language processing.”

In her opinion, as the 21st century progresses, we will see “an increasing convergence between the State and big technologies. Code will cause norms to erode and as codes and norms are changed, there will be demands to change the way we think about democracy and constitutional rights.”

Speaker Maureen Webb

Maureen Webb is the author of “Coding Democracy: How Hackers Are Disrupting Power, Surveillance and Authoritarianism.” Published in 2020 by MIT Press, the book made Wired magazine’s must-read list that year and continues to attract international interest.

She has been invited to speak at Chatham House, Virtual Futures, the Oxford Literary Festival, London’s Front-Line Club, UBC’s Blockchain Centre, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the California Council on World Affairs, Gray Area in San Francisco, Theater Neumarkt in Switzerland, the Toronto International Authors Festival, and a podcast affiliated with the Tokyo Institute of Technology, among many others.

She is also the author of “Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post 9-11 World,” published by City Lights. Her work has been praised by voices as diverse as Arnoldo Garcia, Craig Newmark, Randi Weingarten, Mark Danner, David Cole, Jeremy Waldron, and Cory Doctorow.