What to the Muslim is Internet search: Digital Borders as Barriers to Information

Title of the Paper

What to the Muslim is Internet search: Digital Borders as Barriers to Information Seeking

Paper Information

• Research Domain: Digital borders, information-seeking behavior, racialization, and border governance
• Keywords: Information retrieval, border imperialism, migration, racialization, digital surveillance, privacy, online search behavior, HCI, Muslim communities, digital borders

Research Background and Problem

• Problem or Challenge:

  • The development of digital technologies has facilitated information retrieval, but for racialized and marginalized groups subjected to national or international power structures, the process of information seeking carries geopolitical burdens.
  • Particularly for Muslim communities, their information-seeking processes are often threatened by state surveillance and structural racialization issues.
  • The racialization of Muslims is evident not only at geographical borders but also within digital spaces.

• Significance:

  • Since the 9/11 attacks, Muslims have faced intensified racialization and surveillance, and this targeted racism remains a global issue.
  • The digital surveillance environment restricts Muslims' ability to access information online, creating a new form of information inequality.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Previous studies have focused on information-seeking behaviors, language barriers, and economic obstacles but have rarely explored how racialized surveillance limits access to information online.
  • This study aims to uncover how digital technologies extend border governance, particularly examining their impact on the digital information behaviors of Muslim communities in the United States.

Solution

• Proposed Methods or Solutions:

  • Conduct in-depth interviews with 15 Muslim participants to investigate their internet information-seeking behaviors and the limitations caused by identity privacy concerns and state surveillance.
  • Link the findings to key theoretical concepts such as "border imperialism" to reveal the role of digital technologies in border governance.

• Innovative Contributions:

  • Introduced the concept of "digital borders," arguing that not only physical borders restrict human behavior, but digital technologies also create new forms of boundaries.
  • Expanded border studies into the realm of digital practices, highlighting the restrictive impact of digital spaces on Muslims' access to information.
  • Provided a detailed analysis of how racialized surveillance leads to self-censorship and unequal knowledge participation among Muslim communities.

• Implementation Steps:

  1. Data Collection: Gather participants' perspectives on information-seeking, feelings of insecurity, and surveillance through interviews.
  2. Data Analysis: Use open coding and axial coding methods to extract and organize themes from the data.
  3. Theoretical Mapping: Frame the interview results within theories such as "border imperialism" and "self-governance."

Research Findings

• Specific Results:

  1. Perception of Digital Borders: Muslim participants perceive digital technologies as extensions of physical borders, monitoring their search behaviors and leading to self-censorship and restricted access to information.
  2. Patterns of Self-Censorship: Muslim communities exhibit strategies such as rephrasing queries, avoiding certain keywords, and steering clear of specific topics to mitigate surveillance risks during online searches.
  3. Changes in Information Needs: After migrating to countries where Muslims are a minority (e.g., the United States), the complexity of accessing religious-related information increases significantly.
  4. Cross-Border Effects: U.S. government surveillance of Muslims extends beyond domestic residents, influencing international individuals through visa processes and other mechanisms.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • Offers a theoretical framework based on border studies to deepen the understanding of how digital technologies expand border governance phenomena.
  • Unlike traditional privacy discussions, this study emphasizes how systemic racialization and digital surveillance restrict information-seeking behaviors.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  1. Identified participants' self-restriction in searching for sensitive terms and topics.
  2. Observed participants' reliance on cross-verification and multi-source confirmation due to insecurity in the online search environment.
  3. Demonstrated how homeland security and immigration surveillance significantly impact the digital search behaviors of Muslim residents.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  1. The data primarily focuses on South Asian Muslims, limiting representation of other racial, cultural, or geographical Muslim groups.
  2. The study is centered on the specific sociopolitical environment of the United States, which may limit the generalizability of findings to other countries.
  3. Future research is encouraged to include participants from diverse regions and identities to explore the impact of "digital borders" on different communities.
  4. Calls for HCI researchers to further investigate how racial boundaries are expressed through technology and their enduring effects on information behaviors.