Stupid, Evil, or Both? Understanding the Smittestopp conflict

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the controversy surrounding Norway's COVID-19 contact tracing app, exploring societal conflicts, perceptions, and the reasons behind its criticism and discontinuation.

Contribution

It provides a nuanced understanding of the social and political dynamics that influenced public perception and the failure of the contact tracing app.

Findings

Public perception was deeply polarized

Privacy concerns significantly impacted acceptance

Misunderstandings fueled conflict and criticism

Abstract

Like many governments, the Norwegian government provided a contact tracing application to help in combating the COVID-19 pandemic at its outset. However, the application was widely criticized for enabling an unacceptable intrusion into its subjects' lives, leading to its discontinuation only four months into the pandemic. In this essay, we will take a closer look at what went wrong, attempt to gain a deeper understanding of the passionate nature of the conflict, and how both sides came to view the other as being either stupid, or evil, or both.