Chilling Effects in the Digital Age

Senior research fellow Jon Penney spoke with Michael Geist on the Law Bytes podcast about his new book “Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age.” Chilling effects refers to our tendencies to self-censor or constrain behaviour in the face of perceived threats. This is behaviour that Penney notes is “deeply ingrained in our psychology through evolutionary processes.”

Following the Snowden revelations that the Five Eyes had been surveilling their own citizens, Penney found that “people were chilled about accessing matters of really important public policy,” and other topics. Views dropped on privacy-sensitive content, both in the short- and long-term, due to concerns about surveillance.

Penney argues that when people are deterred from exercising their rights and freedoms, democratic norms become eroded.