Bounded Legitimacy of Emerging Technology: Social Construction of Face Recognition Technology in China

The widespread application of facial recognition technology (FRT) worldwide has triggered heated debates and waves of resistance worldwide. Media events and litigations against the adoption of FRT have been two primary forms of resistance. But to what extent such resistance effectively blocks the FRT remains ambiguous. For example, in May 2019, San Francisco, a prominent tech hub, became the first major city in the United States to prohibit local government agencies from employing FRT. However, in the UK, even though the plaintiff won the litigation in the case of Edward Bridges vs. the Chief Constable of South Wales Police, the first facial recognition case globally, the development of FRT in the UK has not been hindered at all. A similar situation is also observed in China: after two successful litigations against the adoption of FPT, the nationwide adoption of FPT has dramatically increased. Existing theories only offered partial explanations of such patterns. On the one hand, the individual-level theories, including the classic Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and its related and extended models, underscore how individual psychological processes determine their attitudes and behavior towards technology adoption. However, in the case of FRT, individuals often grapple with a contradiction between the convenience brought about by technology and concerns over privacy. Not to mention, individuals have limited power to say no when the adoption becomes mandatory. On the other hand, institution-level theories often regard technology as a top-down dissemination process embedded in the authoritarian need for surveillance. Such argument finds support in the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) tradition that views the diffusion of scientific technology as a part of the social negotiation process dominated by the most powerful institutions. However, such arguments could not fully address how the state balances public administration efficiency, data security regulation, and public grievance and resistance. It also can’t fully address how individuals could win significant lawsuits against powerful intuitions in court. The shortcomings of existing explanations beg for a thorough understanding of the legitimacy of emerging technology and its contingencies. Thus, this project aims to address the following questions: 1) what does legitimacy mean for an emerging and controversial technology such as FRT? 2) how do different stakeholders, both individuals and institutions, interact to shape the bounded legitimacy of FRT in China? 3) What implications do these dynamics have for China's public governance, technology innovation and the global regulation of emerging technologies? To address these questions, we propose four connected studies. 1) A case study on the litigation against the FRT adoption in China. The detailed case study would offer a clear picture of legal reasoning in interpreting and understanding an emerging technology such as FRT. 2) Text-mining and discourse analysis on media coverage of these lawsuits and the coverage of FRT in general. These litigation cases often turn into headline stories, thus becoming a trial-based media event. Media discourse, along with the legal discourse, jointly shape the public perception of the FRT. 3) A survey study to understand how the legal verdict and media discourse shape individuals’ perceived technology legitimacy of FRT and, thus, their attitudes towards and behavior of adopting or rejecting the technology. In this study, we connect the institutional factor with the individual decisionmaking process. And 4) we contextualize our understanding of the patterns of FRT legitimacy building with in-depth interviews. We further scrutinize the dynamics between the state, the courts, the media, and the public to discuss the societal mechanisms of constructing the bounded legitimacy of controversial technology and its impacts on society. The above inquiries are timely and significant for policymakers, innovation practitioners, and the general public. Since the pandemic, China has accelerated adopting big-data and algorithmempowered technology into its public governance. Along with the intensified global competition over emerging technologies, how technological legitimacy can be healthily constructed and nurtured would be crucial to shaping China’s political and technological future. Given China’s status in global development and politics, our nuanced understanding of China’s technology legitimacy-building ecosystem will also offer insights for various policy-makers and stakeholders, foreign and domestic, to develop relevant strategies and regulations in building an ethical and equitable global technological environment.