BBC News: US wants Twitter details of Wikileaks activists
In 2007 I wrote a blog piece about the sinister data-mining types who ploughed millions of dollars into Facebook because they saw the obvious potential of having such a vast and up-to-date depository of information about social networks. Governments ain't stoopid, and now we can see precisely how they plan to use things like Facebook and Twitter to spy on their own citizens. All they have to do is subpoena the social network owners, who are hardly likely to refuse.
The mad thing is that governments don't even have to make any effort to gather the data. Gone are the days of the Stasi, who were almost admirable in their dedication to covert surveillance. Now the public voluntarily supplies tidily organised and digitally compiled information about their social lives.
The good old days
This is really not good. The Wikileaks activists are not terrorists. I doubt that terrorists tweet their terrorist plans. They are whistleblowers who have done nothing but expose factual documents that threaten the public image of the US military-industrial complex's international adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This latest development shows that by invoking 'national security' world governments will be able to get any information about anyone that happens to be stored by social networking sites. The temptation is simply too great for them to resist. And if this is happening now, who know what they might be doing ten years from now?
This is really not good. The Wikileaks activists are not terrorists. I doubt that terrorists tweet their terrorist plans. They are whistleblowers who have done nothing but expose factual documents that threaten the public image of the US military-industrial complex's international adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This latest development shows that by invoking 'national security' world governments will be able to get any information about anyone that happens to be stored by social networking sites. The temptation is simply too great for them to resist. And if this is happening now, who know what they might be doing ten years from now?
You're evil. Ouch!
ReplyDeleteAlan Bennett covered similar issues in 'The History Boys'.
ReplyDeleteI do have some doubts about Wikileaks and how they choose to disclose their information.
ReplyDeleteDespite that, governements are already using facebook and twitter to screen citizens, like the Iranian government who force European Iranians on their visits to Iran to disclose their FB accounts. Not to mention countries like China.
Nevertheless, I still don't think social networking sites are inherently evil. It's what you choose to display on them that makes them interesting to governments and the likes. No one is interested in what you had for breakfast or that you just had the most EPIC shower ever.
And off the record, I loved Das Leben der Anderen. Last time I was in Berlin, we stayed at a hostel that was in the same street as the appartment that was bugged. I didn't have the nerve to check our room for wires.
I don't think social networking sites are evil either, any more than atomic bombs are evil. But they are a tool that could easily be expoited for purposes of surveillance and oppression, and just the thought of that is enough to put me off them.
ReplyDeletePlus, I don't like crowds.
10 years from now i no what they would be doing, there going to make us get RFID chips in us. That is a tracking devise, it has all your info in it, it has your soicial name date of birth your money to pay things with it EVERYTHING!and if your religous it has the three 6's in it so if you get it i guess your going to hell. if you dont believe me theres videos on youtube it was on the news and everything
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