Beyond Instrumentarianism: Automated Facial Recognition Systems in Brazil and Digital Colonialism’s Violence

Abstract

Although critical of contemporary capitalism, and the injustices and asymmetries derived from it, current conceptualisations of ‘surveillance capitalism’ have been developed from within the Global North, paying little attention to the effects and ramifications of this new phase of capitalism for the global periphery. This text looks at this phenomenon from the Global South, emphasising the concept not as a territorial marker but contingent on social relations, intersecting ethnic, nationality and social class markers. Its objective is to explore the applications of automated facial recognition systems in Brazil, discussing how they reinforce a disciplinary logic of social subordination and diversify forms of symbolic violence. In this context, from the perspective of digital colonialism, we aim to highlight how the operation of such systems in the Global South contests and challenges the idea of soft instrumentarian control. It analyses the manifestations of surveillance capitalism in the Global South as enablers of digital colonialism, where disciplinary and violent social effects are fostered. It describes the functioning of AFR and its extensive relationship with colonial practices. To deepen our discussion, we will briefly focus on the application in public security and schools in Brazil, describing its controversies and disciplinary logic. Furthermore, it addresses the problematisation of instrumentarian power through post-colonial and digital colonialism approaches, arguing that the effects of deploying digital technologies globally are not restricted to data plundering but also foster complex social effects, such as dependency and violence.