Authoritarian Surveillance: A Corona Test

As the world seemed undecided in praising China’s crisis management through what was formerly called networked authoritarianism (MacKinnon 2011), countries such as Iran showed no interest extending its notorious political surveillance practices into public health arena. Consequently, this paper asks if umbrella term “authoritarian surveillance” used by many Western and non-Western scholars (including myself) can do justice to witnessed during COVID-19 pandemic Iran? Could any act of arbitrary or oppressive be categorised authoritarian surveillance? Does necessarily correspond an state form? This summarily reviews theories current discussions on surveillance. By scrutinising Iran’s inability apply tools a crisis, argues for analytical integration other socio-political concepts, legitimacy, economic potentialities, infrastructural capacities, proposes situated understanding contextualised within social, political, economic, historical interrelations.