The groundbreaking Future Human salon series continues with ‘Closing Net’, where we’ll be exploring the myriad ways  governments and corporations use the Internet as a tool of control. The event takes place on November 9 at The Book Club, from 7-9.30pm, and is part of Internet Week Europe, so make sure you don’t miss out by securing your ticket in advance.

The Internet has increasingly become the battleground of a secretive ‘information war’ between the world’s leading powers. This conflict continues to evolve and intensify, with practises ranging from the subtle, such as the the Russian government’s use of mafia hackers to attack Georgian websites, to the obvious, such as China’s censorship of Western news websites.

The picture has recently grown more complex, however, as anonymous hackers have turned their fire on governments, corporate giants and their shadowy proxies in the information security industry. Reacting to this threat, states and corporations alike are integrating former criminals into their cybersecurity defence programmes, and developing new tools of digital surveillance to monitor the activities of the information anarchists. Increasingly though, these new tools are being used to surveil the general public, and to suppress dissent on a mass scale.

Will the data we exchange every day online be used against us, and could we be witnessing the rise of a turbo charged global surveillance culture? And how will the ‘information war’ taking place in China and the Middle East come influence the UK? Join us on November 9 to find out.

We’ll be delving into this shadowy world of collaboration, activism and repression with three diverse and fascinating guests: Agnes Callamard of free speech activists Article 19, information security expert (and convicted hacker) Daniel Cuthbert, and Samuel Carlisle, who showed the organisational potential of the Internet with his anti-kettling app, Sukey, earlier this year.

Once again, you can buy tickets here, and we look forward to seeing you at our last forward thinking extravaganza of 2011!