Rethinking Neoliberal Internet Communication Technology Governance for Indigenous Peoples: Lessons from Kurdish Subaltern “Counterpublic Spheres”

This chapter combats the prevalent idea that networked communications and internet communication technologies (ICTs) supersede state borders and have the power to facilitate political transformation by arguing instead that Indigenous technological governance is a precondition for the potential success of ICTs. In doing so, this chapter builds on frameworks of Indigenous data sovereignty to critique the ongoing neoliberal facilitation of ICT governance in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI). Rooted in Western colonial reasoning, ICT governance problematizes Indigenous development. This chapter puts forward an alternative framework for ICT governance in the KRI that is focused on fluid and shifting geographical, sociocultural, and political considerations. By following this framework, ICTs would adapt to Indigenous ways of knowing and living, helping to ensure self-determination and reduce the ongoing disenfranchisement of Indigenous Peoples in pursuit of a falsely purported borderless communications network.