Digitally Networked Territorial Control: Digital Communication and Hybrid Order in the Urban Periphery

How do armed actors leverage digital communication for territorial control? In violently contested urban environments (often known as “hybrid orders”), territorial control involves regulating who belongs in a specific geographical area. Enforcing these rules, in turn, requires gathering fine-grained information to evaluate threats and selectively project violence. This study illustrates how the affordances of digital communication platforms help armed actors to do so. Using a comparative ethnographic approach and open-source research methods, the article analyzes three digital intelligence-gathering practices used by criminal groups and militarized police in Fortaleza’s urban periphery (Brazil): smartphone inspections, digital information-sharing networks, and social media monitoring. The findings reveal how the structural features of digital communication platforms facilitate accessing and disseminating strategic information, which in turn introduces effectiveness, flexibility, and efficiency gains in territorial control. This suggests that digital media affordances play an important role in contemporary forms of territorial competition by armed groups.