Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore how China uses a social credit system as part of its “data-driven authoritarianism” policy; and second, to investigate how datafication, which is a method to legitimize data collection, and dataveillance, which is continuous surveillance through the use of data, offer the Chinese state a legitimate method of monitoring, surveilling and controlling citizens, businesses and society. Taken together, China’s social credit system is analyzed as an integrated tool for datafication, dataveillance and data-driven authoritarianism. Design/methodology/approach This study combines the personal narratives of 22 Chinese citizens with policy analyses, online discussions and media reports. The stories were collected using a scenario-based story completion method to understand the participants’ perceptions of the recently introduced social credit system in China. Findings China’s new social credit system, which turns both online and offline behaviors into a credit score through smartphone apps, creates a “new normal” way of life for Chinese citizens. This data-driven authoritarianism uses data and technology to enhance citizen surveillance. Interactions between individuals, technologies and information emerge from understanding the system as one that provides social goods, using technologies, and raising concerns of privacy, security and collectivity. An integrated critical perspective that incorporates the concepts of datafication and dataveillance enhances a general understanding of how data-driven authoritarianism develops through the social credit system. Originality/value This study builds upon an ongoing debate and an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance and digital sociology while filling empirical gaps in the study of the global South. The Chinese social credit system has growing recognition and importance as both a governing tool and a part of everyday datafication and dataveillance processes. Thus, these phenomena necessitate discussion of its consequences for, and applications by, the Chinese state and businesses, as well as affected individuals’ efforts to adapt to the system.

This study explores the internal dynamics and networks of terrorist groups in cyberspace—in particular, Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). Using a “Global Cyberterrorism Dataset” that features data on cyberterror attacks between 2011 and 2016, this research analyzes these two terrorist groups through the lens of a cyber-conflict theory that integrates conflict theory with Jaishankar’s space transition theory. Through a network analysis methodology, we examine the invisible relationships and connections between the national origins and target countries of cyberterror attacks. The analysis focuses on the networks of national origins of terrorists and victims, network structures of Al-Qaeda and ISIS actors, and clustering networks of Al-Qaeda and ISIS cyberterrorists. Results indicate that terror in cyberspace is ubiquitous, more flexible than traditional terrorism, and that cyberattacks mostly occurred within the countries of origin. We conclude by discussing the complex features of cyberterror networks and identify some of the geostrategic implications of the divergent cyber strategies adopted by Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

On March 16, 2021, a shooting in Atlanta killed eight people, six were women of Asian descent. This creates a new atmosphere online and offline to discuss hate crimes, racism, and violence against Asian Americans in the United States. The current research utilizes structural topic modeling and text mining to explore how the 2021 Atlanta shooting ignited debates and public discourse on the #StopAsianHate-related conversations on Twitter. The study analyzes the first 7 days of the shooting to explore the temporal patterns and emergent topics of Twitter discourses. Findings show that salient topics and temporal patterns differ from day to day, but topics such as “stand with AAPI community” and “stop racism” are prevalent throughout the 7-day period. This study discusses social media’s role in shaping and reporting public discourses, that is, how digital justice is exercised, and offers social and policy implications. There can be implications for social media’s role in shaping and reporting public discourses on social phenomena with digital justice.

E-commerce is the practice of purchasing, selling, transferring, and exchanging goods, services, or information through the Internet, a computer, and/or other devices. With the development of e-commerce markets, fraud is increasingly reported. This study uses a crime script analysis to examine how customer-to-customer (C2C) fraud occurs on China’s online platforms with a particular focus on the online marketplace Baidu Tieba and Tencent QQ, a tool that allows customers to make contact and negotiate deals and payment methods. The findings demonstrate that C2C fraud develops through pre-operation, operation, finalization, and exit stages, sharing commonalities with other online identity fraud processes. Implications for policy and interventions are also discussed in regard to e-commerce fraud in China and elsewhere.

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Terrorist groups have integrated social discourse into their narratives to exploit public fear. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to measure how ISIS modified narratives, stimulated group communication, reinforced enemy hatred, and employed new mobilization/recruitment strategies. Using Significance Quest Theory, this study examines ISIS’s Twitter activity related to COVID-19 ( N = 630,201) and how the group leverages the psychological effects and the social disruption. This study employs a two-stage analysis of tweet sentiment and emotion with a statistical analysis of retweet-motivating factors to explore how ISIS manages its narrative, needs, and network. Results show content with higher negative sentiment scores had more retweets across all sample sets. Insights include deeper understanding of extremist activity and group adaptation to external changes.

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PurposeThe first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was documented in China, and the virus was soon to be introduced to its neighboring country – South Korea. South Korea, one of the earliest countries to initiate a national pandemic response to COVID-19 with fairly substantial measures at the individual, societal and governmental level, is an interesting example of a rapid response by the Global South. The current study examines contact tracing mobile applications (hereafter, contact tracing apps) for those who were subject to self-quarantine through the lenses of dataveillance and datafication. This paper analyzes online/digital data from those who were mandatorily self-quarantined by the Korean government largely due to returning from overseas travel.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses an Internet ethnography approach to collect and analyze data. To extract data for this study, self-quarantined Korean individuals' blog entries were collected and verified with a combination of crawling and manual checking. Content analysis was performed with the codes and themes that emerged. In the COVID-19 pandemic era, this method is particularly useful to gain access to those who are affected by the situation. This approach advances the author’s understandings of COVID-19 contact tracing mobile apps and the experiences of self-quarantined people who use them.FindingsThe paper shows Korean citizens' understandings and views of using the COVID-19 self-tracing application in South Korea through examining their experiences. The research argues that the application functions as a datafication tool that collects the self-quarantined people's information and performs dataveillance on the self-quarantined people. This research further offers insights for various agreements/disagreements at different actors (i.e. the self-quarantined, their families, contact tracers/government officials) in the process of contact tracing for COVID-19.Originality/valueThis study also provides insights into the implications of information and technology as they affect datafication and dataveillance conducted on the public. This study investigates an ongoing debate of COVID-19's contact tracing method concerning privacy and builds upon an emerging body of literature on datafication, dataveillance, social control and digital sociology.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-08-2020-0377