The fight for control of the internet is epic – authoritarian forces are building the Digital Berlin Wall of mass surveillance and control, while digital freedom fighters are doing everything in their power to defend personal freedom.
The digitization of everything is a double edged sword. It enables incredible personal freedom and dystopian authoritarian abuse, at the same time.
The Surveillance Wall
The purpose of the Berlin Wall was to keep citizens from escaping to freedom. The wall, built by a totalitarian state, controlled individuals via surveillance and restrictions on freedom. As the wall did in East Berlin, the digital surveillance wall constrains freedom all across the globe today.
The analogy to the surveillance state we see today is strong. In fact, the illegal mass surveillance capabilities of governments today are the wet dreams of past totalitarian regimes.
Digital Slaves
Walked a red light? You just lost 100 points on your social credit balance. Speeding? Now you can’t leave the country. Family members fled to exile? Go straight to jail. This is not fiction – this is the surveillance nightmare of Xinjiang, China today.
Here, the Chinese government has implemented a testbed police state where an estimated 1 million individuals from these minority groups have been arbitrarily detained. Among the detainees are academics, writers, engineers, and relatives of Uighurs in exile. Many Uighurs abroad worry for their missing family members, who they haven’t heard from for several months and, in some cases, over a year.
EFF
Resist
Resist mass surveillance and totalitarian abuse with freedom tech. Freedom tech tools get stronger as more people use them. Using these tools helps the people most in need of them.
Another reason to support freedom tech is that it keeps power in check and insures against black swan like political events globally.