Concealing for Freedom


"Concealing for Freedom: The Making of Encryption, Secure Messaging and Digital Liberties"

This event took place on 7 June 2022. See past webinars at IAMCR's Webinars Channel on Vimeo >>

IAMCR's Communication Policy and Technology Section is pleased to announce a webinar to present the book “Concealing for Freedom: The Making of Encryption, Secure Messaging and Digital Liberties” (Mattering Press).

The book, co-authored by Francesca Musiani and Ksenia Ermoshina, presents the first in-depth sociological inquiry in the field of secure communication. Encryption has become one of the core battlegrounds of Internet governance: current debates around encryption have fundamental implications for our individual liberties and collective presence on the Internet. Alongside the turning of encryption into a fully-fledged political issue, the cryptography community has renewed its efforts to create next-generation secure messaging protocols and applications.

The webinar sets out to explore these efforts, unveiling the experience of encryption in the variety of secure messaging protocols and tools existing today. The authors will show how these tools, with a core common objective of “concealing for freedom”, differ in their intended technical architectures, their targeted user publics and the underlying values and business models. 

Date and Time: 07 June 2022 @ 13h00 UTC / 09h00 New York / 14h00 London / 15h00 Paris / 16h00 Nairobi / 18h30 Kolkata / 21h00 Beijing.

Pre-registration is required by 6 June:

Sponsored byCommunication Policy & Technology Section

Moderated by: Jo Pierson, Professor of Responsible Digitalisation, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (imec-SMIT) & Hasselt University (R4D), Belgium.

Description: Francesca Musiani and Ksenia Ermoshina will present the book and its core findings, as well as the innovative interdisciplinary methodology forged by them to conduct the survey within the cryptography community and among active users of secure messaging apps. The authors will engage in a critical conversation about key findings and methodological approach with the members of Communication Policy and Technology section and other IAMCR members. Finally, they draw out key implications of this research for media and communication studies and discuss further collaborations on the topic of surveillance studies and encryption studies.

Format: Book presentation (40 minutes), critical comments from the discussant (15 minutes) followed by a general discussion (30 to 40 minutes). Duration: 1h 30 minutes.

Location: The meeting will take place on Zoom.

Who can participate: The webinar is free for all IAMCR members but space is limited. A limited number of guest invitations for non-members may be available. Send an email with the subject "guest list for the CPT Book Launch" to register4iamcrwebinar [at] gmail.com (subject: guest%20list%20for%20the%20CPT%20Book%20Launch) , if you would like to be added to the guest list.

Registration: There is no charge for IAMCR members, but pre-registration is required by 6 June


Webinars are free for all IAMCR members but space is limited so pre-registration is required.

See past webinars at IAMCR's Webinars Channel on Vimeo >>

About the series: The IAMCR Webinar Series aims to open channels for engagement and participation in addition to the association's annual conference, keeping IAMCR members connected and engaged with regular dialogue about issues of importance to the international media and communication research community. Join us!