If governments acquire political weapons unavailable to their opponents, they become harder to dislodge. The Pegasus spyware, whose widespread use by governments the Guardian has helped reveal, is just the latest variety of asymmetric force. The ability to peer into someone’s life from a distance, to track their every movement, word and intention, grants autocrats an unprecedented power. He did not possess what Modi, Putin, Orbán, Erdoğan, Kaczyński and Lukashenko possess: a strategic, sophisticated drive for power. Alternatively, his ruthless pursuit of power, assisted by new political weapons, could render his administrative failings irrelevant.

Source: The Guardian July 27, 2021 16:22 UTC