Digital State Page 11

Digital State

The state now governs partly through databases. A welfare payment can be denied by an algorithm. A citizenship claim overturned by a database error. A surveillance system deployed without public knowledge and without accountability. Decode's Digital State reporting investigates how public institutions in India deploy technology — and what happens to people when these systems make mistakes, exceed their mandate, or are turned against the people they were designed to serve.

Power has always shaped information. Now, it does it through feeds, troll armies, and recommendation algorithms. The Indian state governs partly through databases: a welfare payment denied by an algorithm, a citizenship claim overturned by an error, a surveillance system deployed without accountability. But Digital State is also about power beyond government: the influencer-politician nexus, the online mobs that function as political enforcement, the platforms that amplify some voices and erase others.Decode's Digital State reporting investigates how public institutions and political actors use technology - and what happens to ordinary people when these systems fail, overstep, or are turned against them.