Answer to question 3. What is "the digital poorhouse"?

3. What is "the digital poorhouse"? How do the themes and examples discussed by Virginia Eubanks in the assigned chapter relate to Foucault's concept of "biopower" / "biopolitics"? Describe the context for the Virginia Eubanks quote below by summarizing some key points and examples made in this reading.
"When we talk about the technologies that mediate our interactions with public agencies today, we tend to focus on their innovative qualities, the ways they break with convention. Their biggest fans call them “disruptors,” arguing that they shake up old relations of power, producing a government that is more transparent, responsive, efficient, even inherently more democratic. This myopic focus on what’s new leads us to miss the important ways that digital tools are embedded in old systems of power and privilege."
Eubanks (2017) described digital poorhouse as a system that is mainly controlled by technology which is based on the long cultural history of marginalized societies. During the 1800s, poorhouses were common and many public figures proposed that citizens will only get public assistance if they agree to shelter in a poorhouse. It dissuades the marginalized communities from public resources and acts like a scientific charity that examines, categorizes, and criminalizes the poor. It prevents the poor and working-class to increase their capacities by accessing the shared resources.
Eubanks’ claims can be analyzed through Michael Foucault’s definition of biopolitics and biopower. Biopolitics is described as a logic that allows the political parties to make life and populations ...