Why is human trafficking excluded from the EU’s cybersecurity? : An explorative study about cybersecurity and human trafficking in the European Union

Abstract: Combatting human trafficking is one of the top priorities in the European Union and Europol. Nonetheless, Europe is one of worlds’ leading regions for most trafficked human beings. Human trafficking is often connected to organised crime such as drug trafficking, cybercrime and child pornography and occurs across borders. 21st century’s digital age has broadly shifted human trafficking from the real-life to the cyberspace. However, human trafficking is not mentioned in any EU cybersecurity policies. This thesis aims to explore, using a feminist security approach, why human trafficking is overlooked in the European Union cybersecurity. By conducting an interpretive content analysis and using the method of deconstruction, I investigated the silences of human trafficking and gender. Leaning on feminist theories of securitisation, hegemonic masculinity and poststructural feminism, three significant assumptions were identified. The first assumption was that human trafficking is overlooked in the EU cybersecurity because of the non-human referent object of security. The second was that it is overlooked because of hegemonic masculinity. And lastly, because the issue is seen as private and therefore do not belong to cybersecurity. By analysing EU cybersecurity policies, I identified that the EU cybersecurity is dominated by norms of hegemonic masculinity and gendered social hierarchies. In the EU cybersecurity, threats related to non-human objects are constructed and gain hegemony over human rights and social policies. This study has raised important questions about the nature of cybersecurity in the EU, and greater efforts are needed to ensure women’s security in the cyberspace. These results suggest that if the EU aims to combat human trafficking wholehearted, it needs to start with acknowledging human trafficking as a threat in the cyberspace.