Negotiating digital surveillance legislation in post-Snowden times

Abstract

In the digital era, when security agencies world-wide have been challenging basic democratic principles with massive data gathering, Finland has had a different approach: it has conducted no large-scale surveillance of citizens’ online activities. Now, however, the country is planning such a vast expansion of state surveillance that the constitution itself must be altered. The present article examines one key point in this legislative process to see how the new surveillance measures are argued for and criticized, and how the differing points of view are negotiated to ultimately enable political action. Drawing particularly on Fairclough and Fairclough’s (2012) approach to argumentation in political discourse, the article finds that surveillance is promoted as essential for national security, and criticized especially for its economic risks, consequences for civil rights and questionable effectiveness. Despite this range of critical perspectives, only economic considerations become a topic of extended deliberation.

Key Stakeholders’ Frames on the Police and Intelligence Agencies’ Online Surveillance Capabilities in Finland

“…For instance, the Ministry of Communications and Transport recommended that Finland should abstain from legislating on network traffic intelligence, questioned its effectiveness and highlighted the possible harm to the competitiveness of businesses (Liikenne-ja viestintäministeriö 2014). According to Tiainen (2019) the working group and its final report failed to respond and address adequately to the concerns of some stakeholders. The misgivings raised in Finland about the possibly detrimental effects of surveillance on civil rights, doubts about the efficacy of online surveillance methods, and the calls for transparency and effective oversight of intelligence systems are typical of the public debate in other countries too (Bernal 2016;Cayford and Pieters 2018;Murray and Fussey 2019;Omand and Phythian 2013;RUSI 2015).…”