Guns, Tech and Permaviolence in Latin America

What happens when our phones, feeds, and algorithms quietly make extreme violence feel normal and deadly tools easier to build than ever? This talk introduces “permaviolence”, tracing how digital platforms, AI and 3D-printed guns supercharge real-world harm, and explores bold legal strategies from Latin America that aim to hold tech giants and gun manufacturers accountable for cross-border, digitally enabled violence today.

León Castellanos-Jankiewicz, senior researcher in international law, introduces “permaviolence”, a concept describing the unprecedented ubiquity of harm in contemporary society mediated by digital technology. Permaviolence operates through two mechanisms: “onboarding violence”, where algorithms and digital media normalise violent content through constant exposure; and “outsourcing violence”, where emerging technologies democratise access to harmful tools.

Drawing on recent research on gun control, AI‐enabled weapons and 3D‐printed firearms, Castellanos-Jankiewicz shows how technological change outpaces humanity’s moral capacity to adapt. He turns to Latin America, where U.S.-manufactured guns fuel regional violence amplified by digital means, creating grounds for strategic litigation against manufacturers and online platforms over transboundary harms. Cases from Mexico and other countries exemplify approaches to corporate accountability, challenging liability shields by documenting how negligent distribution and wilful blindness to trafficking patterns destabilise the region.

Castellanos-Jankiewicz's presentation concludes by advocating innovative governance frameworks to narrow the gap between technological capacity for violence and our ability to respond.

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