"Concentration of technology is a surprising outcome of cheap hardware and free software. We could have had a world of peers. Instead, the net we built is the net we didn't want.
We're in an age of surveillance with centralized control. We're in a world, which encourages swiping, clicking, and flame throwing."
Eban Moglen
"But while we were having fun, we happily and
willingly helped to create the greatest surveillance system ever
imagined, a web whose strings give governments and businesses countless threads
to pull, which makes us…puppets. The free flow of information
over the Internet (except in places where that flow is blocked),
which serves us well, may serve others better. Whether this
distinction turns out to matter may be the one piece of information
the Internet cannot deliver."
Sue Halpern
The internet, molded by deregulated, increasingly concentrated
corporations and the unaccountable national security
state, is turning into a panopticon. It knows where you are, what you are doing at all
times. But it is not just an invasive snoop, It has been as
commercialized as other media. Against public opinion, the Republican FCC removed net neutrality.
Initially, the peer-to-peer nature of the internet made it
democratic, but there are strong forces working to centralize and dominate it.
Search services require central infrastructure, and so does social
media like Facebook, Twitter, or Google.
"In 2010, ’ co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon coined the term “networked authoritarianism” to define how China manipulates the internet to maintain power.
The approach allows for limited debate around some issues but controls the platforms and frames the narratives up for discussion. Technology facilitates surveillance and social controls,
and information, discussion, and activism with the potential to threaten power is forbidden."
The First Amendment assures your right of free speech, but that really does not apply to the internet.
After all, the internet is private, and providers are free to decide what you can say, or if you can
be there at all. Now there is a small army of censors who decide if you say something they don´t like.
Facebook is used by news organizations to police comments on their web sites.
"...we've taken the web and we've made Facebook out of it. We put a few profit-motivated men and women in the middle of everything.
That was a mistake. Now we're paying for it. We live our social lives, our private lines, in the web and we share everything with our friends,
and also with our super-friend, the one who reports to anybody who makes him, who pays him, who helps him or who gives him the 100 billion dollars he desires.
We are creating media that consume us, and media loves it."
Eben Moglen quoted in Journalism After Snowden.
if we learn only one lesson from the Summer of
Snowden, it should be how hostile the Internet has become. Media outlets
have repeatedly reported on the insatiable appetite the US
government has for the private information of citizens."
Ladar Levison
"Why has the invention most celebrated for putting
the means of expression in the hands of the people produced a few billionaire
moguls and a mass of creative producers expected
to work for free ?" Jodi Dean: Democracy and Other Neoliberal Fantasies
"The potential for manipulation and abuse of the
digital networks and platforms that citizens have come to depend
upon is one of the more insidious threats to democracy in the
Internet age. If citizens of established democracies cannot prevent
such manipulation, the prospects for aspiring and fragile
democracies ... look much less bright." Consent of the Networked:
The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom: Rebecca
MacKinnon.
The advance of information technology epitomized by
Google heralds the death of privacy for most people and shifts the world
toward authoritarianism. This is the principal thesis in my book,
“Cypherpunks.” Julian
Assange: editor in chief of WikiLeaks and author of “Cypherpunks:
Freedom and the Future of the Internet.”
"Web 2.0 is a formula to kill the middle class and
undo centuries of social progress." Jaron Lanier
"Adding censorship to the Internet means adding
surveillance to the Internet. Creating Great Firewalls means creating
secret, unaccountable lists of censored material that result in mass
abuse, even in the most liberal of democracies. It doesn't matter if
you're censoring for copyright infringement or for human-rights
reports. The result is the same: a surveillance state." Cory Doctorow: Information
Doesn't Want to be Free
"...without congressional action or a strong judicial
precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting
their private data to a company with physical ties to the United
States. Sincerely, Ladar Levison Owner and Operator, Lavabit LLC" (message announcing the
closing of his email business.)
"If the U.S companies and non profits want to support
democracy in the Middle East the best they can do is continue to
develop a free neutral decentralized internet. Fight the troubling
trends emerging in your own backyards from threats to Net
neutrality, disregard for user’s privacy, draconian copyright
and DRM restrictions, to the troubling trends of censorship through
courts in Europe, restrictions on anonymous access and rampant
surveillance in the name of combating terrorism or protecting
children or fighting hate speech or whatever. You see these trends
give our own regimes great excuses for their own actions. You
don’t need special programs and projects to help free the
Internet in the Middle East. Just keep it free, accessible and
affordable on your side and we’ll figure out how to use it,
get around restrictions imposed by our governments and innovate and
contribute to the network’s growth."
Sami Ben Gharbia (2010)
In South Korea, more than half the households are
already connected to fiber lines that allow for blazing fast uploads and downloads, and
households in Japan and Hong Kong are close behind. In America, only around 7 percent
of households have access to fiber, and the service costs six times
as much as it does in Hong Kong (and five times as much as it does
in Stockholm). Vertically integrated cable companies, whose Internet
access product is not provided over fiber and crimps uploads, are well on the
way to controlling America's Internet access destiny, having spent millions
of dollars over almost fifteen years lobbying against any rules that
might have constrained them. (from Susan Crawford's book: Captive
Audience)
In 2002 the FCC decided there would be almost no
oversight of the broadband highways that deliver the internet to us, believing that the
invisible hand of the marketplace would get the job done. Stunningly,
the agency actually determined that broadband wasn’t even
“telecommunications.” It was instead an “information service,” which
meant that consumer protections (like ubiquitous service, reasonable
prices, privacy, public safety, and competitive choice) that applied to
previous generations’ telephone service would not be required as
communications went digital. If consumers wished to enjoy such
protections for broadband, they would have to start all over—in a
decidedly hostile political and regulatory climate. No other nation
allowed such a ludicrous debate over communications semantics to
shackle its broadband development. Michael
J. Copps 3/2014 CJR
The US "war on the internet" information below is just the tip
of
a terrible iceberg, rarely even mentioned, much less examined
by
US mainstream media. It is chillingly self-explanatory. In the
works
for years, it is being incrementally implemented (for ex., at
the
most basic sender-receiver authentication level, as
'anti-spam'.
'anti-ID theft' and other personal 'security' measures.) Total
surveillance and control of information and communications is
central
and essential to the phony 'war on terror' --- a state terror
war
for global domination as so much of the world on the deadly
receiving
end knows. Made clear 'in their own words', even blogging and
'social
networking' are intolerable threats to those in the business of
spreading fear, lies and tyranny.
"The internet needs to be dealt with as if it were an enemy
'weapons
system'..."
Information Operation Roadmap Part 3: "We Must Fight the Net"
A NET OF CONTROL Unthinkable: How the Internet could become a
tool
of corporate and government power, based on updates now in the
works
Newsweek International Issues 2004 By Steven Levy Picture, if
you
will, an information infrastructure that encourages censorship,
surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse. Where
anonymity
is outlawed and every penny spent is accounted for. Where the
powers
that be can smother subversive (or economically competitive)
ideas
in the cradle, and no one can publish even a laundry list
without
the imprimatur of Big Brother. Some prognosticators are saying
that
such a construct is nearly inevitable. And this infrastructure
is
none other than the former paradise of rebels and
free-speechers:
the Internet. ... wasnt the Internet supposed to be the
defining
example of empowering technology? Freedom was allegedly built
into
the very bones of the Internet, designed to withstand nuclear
blasts
and dictatorial attempts at control. ...
Certainly John Walker (ed: his important article below)
believed
all that. The hackerish founder of the software firm
Autodesk..in
the past couple of years noticed a disturbing trend... Walker
posted
his fears in a web document called The Dangers of Digital
Imprimatur http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/
<http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/>
...(below)
A concurrent step would be the adoption of "trusted computing,"
a
system by which not only people but computer programs would be
stamped with identifying marks. Those would link with
certificates
that determine whether programs are uncorrupted and cleared to
run
on your computer. The best-known implementation of this scheme
is
the work in progress at Microsoft known as Next Generation
Secure
Computing Base (formerly called Palladium)...
Walker isnt the first to warn of this ominous power shift. The
Internets pre-eminent dean of darkness is Lawrence Lessig, the
Stanford University guru of cyberlaw. Beginning with his 1999
book
"Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,"
Lessig has been predicting that corporate and regulatory
pressures
would usurp the open nature of the Net, and now says that he
has
little reason to retract his pessimism. Lessig understands that
restrictive copyright and Homeland Security laws give a legal
rationale to "total control," and also knows that it will be
sold
to the people as a great way to stop thieves, pirates,
malicious
hackers, spammers and child pornographers. "To say we need
total
freedom isnt going to win," Lessig says.[...]
US Plans to 'Fight the Net' Revealed by Adam Brookes http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
January 27, 2006
BBC Pentagon's 2003 "Information Operations Roadmap" newly
declassified,
gives a glimpse into the US military's plans for "information
operations" [...]
Secret Pentagon "Roadmap"
National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 177 A
secret
Pentagon "roadmap" on war propaganda, approved by Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld in October 2003...calls on DoD to
enhance
its capabilities in five key Information Operations (IO) areas:
electronic warfare (EW), PSYOP, Operations Security (OPSEC),
military
deception and computer network operations (CNO)....
Information Operations: The Hard Reality of Soft Power, Joint
Forces
Staff College and the National Security Agency (2004) (ISBN
1574886991).
America prepares for 'cyber war' with China, Telegraph.uk.co
(June
15, 2007).
Pentagon Plans New Arm to Wage Cyberspace Wars http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/us/politics/29cyber.html?_
r=1&th&emc=th WASHINGTON The Pentagon plans to create
a new military
command for cyberspace, administration officials said Thursday,
stepping up preparations by the armed forces to conduct both
offensive
and defensive computer warfare.The military command would
complement
a civilian effort to be announced by President Obama on Friday
that
would overhaul the way the United States safeguards its
computer
networks... Officials said that in addition to the unclassified
strategy paper to be released by Mr. Obama on Friday, a
classified
set of presidential directives is expected to lay out the
militarys
new responsibilities and how it coordinates its mission with
that
of the N.S.A., where most of the expertise on digital warfare
resides
today...
Today, trackers follow you around the web, skulking in the digital shadows in order to guess what kind of person you are. In Google’s "Privacy Sandbox," your browser will do their job for them. https://t.co/VCCVUfiyn5
Can you do anything on the web without going through a #BigTech platform?#BigTech gained dominance because the law didn't do its job. So what can you do? Find out in this video!
"When Antitrust Law Fails: Breaking Up Big Tech with Grassroots Technology"https://t.co/RFZVCj4G6B
A Fresh Start for the Internet Stanford University researchers
aren't just dreaming of a new Internet:
they're building it.
"a threat to democracy"
Obama: We Need To Bail Out Newspapers Or Blogs Will Run The
World
9-21-09 http://www.businessinsider.com/john-carney-obama-we-need-to-
bailout-newspapers-or-blog-will-run-the-world-2009-9
...<http://www.businessinsider.com/john-carney-obama-we-need-to-bailout-newsp
apers-or-blog-will-run-the-world-2009-9> Obama said he will
look
at a news paper bailout, otherwise, blogs will take over the
world,
and that would be a threat to democracy bills that could give
tax
newspapers tax-breaks if they were to restructure as 50 (c) (3)
educational corporations. One of the bills is that of Senator
Ben
Cardin, who has introduced the "Newspaper Revitalization Act
(NB: Bill passed and Obama since has declared a "swine flu"
national
emergency) 8/28/9 Bill Would Give President Emergency Control
of
Internet http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html
by
Declan McCullagh Internet companies and civil liberties groups
were
alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing
the
White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers
from
the Internet. They're not much happier about a revised version
that
aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia Democrat, have
spent
months drafting behind closed doors. CNET News has obtained a
copy
of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt
<http://www.politechbot.com/docs/rockefeller.revised.cybersec
urity.draft.082709.pdf>
<http://www.politechbot.com/docs/rockefeller.revised.cybersecurity.draft.0827
09.pdf%3E> )...The new version would allow the president to
"declare
a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental"
computer
networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat.
("Cyber"
is defined as anything having to do with the Internet,
telecommunications,
computers, or computer networks.) ...
U.S. Institute of Peace Study by Israeli Professor: Terrorist Groups
Active on the Internet http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-4-200
4_pg7_53
There are hundreds of sites on the Internet serving terrorist
groups
and their supporters, according to a study done by the * US
Institute of Peace (USIP).
The study undertaken by Gabriel Weimann, a professor at the
Haifa
University in Israel and currently a senior fellow at USIP,
writes
that today all active terrorist groups have established their
presence on the Internet..
Israeli high-tech companies work for U.S.
U.S. law enforcement wiretaps authorized by the Communications
Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/18/2248
26.shtml
[Isreali] Amdocs provides billing and directory assistance for
most
American phone companies, Comverse Infosys handles telephone
tapping
equipment for US law enforcement, Odigo runs "Instant Message"
systems on computers. All three are closely tied to the Mossad
and
the Israeli Defense Force, which is massively funded by u.s.
Most
firewalls on US corporate and government computer systems are
provided by Israeli Checkpoint Systems. Odigo's offices near
the
World Trade Towers allegedly received two hour advance warning
of
the 911attacks...
"From the depth of our heart -- thanks to The Israeli Defense
Forces"
Microsoft logo under the text with the Israeli national flag in
the
background.
Microsoft CEO: Our company almost as Israeli as American By Maayan
Cohen, TheMarker Correspondent, and Reuters http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/985800.html
Microsoft's Chief
Executive Steve Ballmer, on a visit to Israel... at the
inauguration
ceremony of the American software giant's new research and
development
center in Herzliya...said Microsoft is an Israeli company
almost
as much as it is American...that the proportion of Microsoft
employees
per capita in Israel is almost similar to that in the United
States...he knows very few places around the world that offer
such
a variety of startup opportunities, and that his company
intends
to purchase more Israeli startup companies... the CEO said
Microsoft
is not looking to buy all of Yahoo! but is currently engaging
in
negotiations about other types of deals with the U.S.
No. 2 search engine.
Related:# Microsoft Israel creating new R&D center in Herzliya
#
Yahoo!
President Susan Decker takes interest in Israel # Internet
giant
Yahoo! to follow rivals Google, Microsoft to Israel
National Dragnet Is a Click Away: Authorities to Gain Fast and
Expansive Access to Records Several thousand law enforcement
agencies
are creating the foundation of a domestic intelligence system
through
computer networks that analyze vast amounts of police
information
to fight crime and root out terror plots.
US warrantless wiretapping since 1990s predates 9/11 12/19/07
"The
Register"- Secret surveillance operations that enabled the
National
Security Agency (NSA) to access telecommunications traffic data
have been in place since the
1990s....http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18928.htm
The Open Source Center is a component of the Office of the
Director
of National Intelligence administered by the CIA.
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE ADVANCES Naquin addressed the Central
Intelligence Retirees' Association October 3, 2007. The text of
his
remarks is at http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/naquin.pdf
The DNI Open
Source Center, which gathers, translates, analyzes, and
distributes
unclassified open source intelligence from around the world, is
steadily growing in capability and impact, according to Doug
Naquin,
the Center's Director. The Open Source Center, which replaced
the
CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service, is doing more
analysis
and outreach than it predecessor and is also exploring new
media,
said Mr. Naquin in a recent speech. "We're looking now at
YouTube,
which carries some unique and honest-to-goodness intelligence,"
he
said. "We have groups looking at what they call 'Citizens
Media':
people taking pictures with their cell phones and posting them
on
the Internet. Then there's Social Media, phenomena like MySpace
and
blogs.... A couple years back we identified Iranian blogs as a
phenomenon worthy of more attention, about six months ahead of
anybody else."...
Does The Government Manipulate Social Media?
The U.S. government long ago announced its intention to "fight
the
net". As revealed by an official Pentagon report called
"Information
Operations Roadmap" (ed: see above) ... "Strategy should be
based
on the premise that the Department [of Defense] will 'fight the
net' as it would an enemy weapons system".
CENTCOM announced in 2008 a team of employees would be
"[engaging]
bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as
well
as bloggers who are posting incomplete information." The Air
Force
is now also engaging bloggers....
Finally, under the post-9/11 "homeland security" laws, the
government
routinely demands full access to ISPs and websites...
Do you doubt that the military and homeland security apparatus would step in to take
control of what it considered an "enemy" message? And
remember, the government considers any message questioning anything
the government does as an enemy message. See this,
this,
this
and this.
digest note re: Soft power propaganda: US/NED/Soros NGO
'pro-democracy'
partner to 'fight terrorism' U.S. government taps Facebook,
Google,
MTV to "Fight Terrorism Global Research, November 28, 2008 http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11198
The US
State Department announced plans on Monday to promote online
youth
groups as a new and powerful way to fight crime, political
oppression
and terrorism.
Drawing inspiration from a movement against FARC rebels in
Colombia,
the State Department is joining forces with Facebook, Google,
MTV,
Howcast and others in New York City next week to get the "ball
rolling." It said 17 groups from South Africa, Britain and the
Middle East which have an online presence like the "Million
Voices
Against the FARC" will attend a conference at Columbia
University
Law School from December 3-5. Observers from seven
organizations
that do not have an online presence -- such as groups from Iraq
and
Afghanistan -- will attend. There will also be remote
participants
from Cuba.
They will forge an "Alliance of Youth Movement," said James
Glassman,
under secretary of state for public diplomacy....
"Unless a way of intervening in the radicalization process can
be
found, we are condemned to stepping on cockroaches one at a
time."
Social Repression and Internet Surveillance: H. Res. 1695, 1955
&
S.1959 By Nikki Alexander
...Jane Harman (D-CA) sponsored H.Res.1955 her partner, Dave
Reichert
(R-WA),authored the original bill... H.Res.1695....establishes
a
National Commission and Center of so-called "Excellence" to
censor
and crush social concerns... perceived to be "threats" by
RAND..."homegrown terrorism,"
"violent radicalization" and "ideologically based
violence"...who
have been "violently radicalized" by "extremist belief
systems."..."The
Internet has aided in facilitating violent radicalization,
ideologically
based violence, and the homegrown terrorism process in the
United
States by providing access to broad and constant streams of
terrorist-related propaganda to United States citizens."...
RAND
spokesman, Brian Jenkins... said to Jane Harmans Committee:
"Unless
a way of intervening in the radicalization process can be
found,
we are condemned to stepping on cockroaches one at a time."
...the
precise terminology used by Nazis to justify exterminating
Jews.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article18998.htm
I am writing to express my hope that you will support town,
city, and county efforts to create municipal high-speed wireless
and broadband networks.
An open Internet, universally accessible, is essential to this
state's educational, informational, economic and cultural future.
But high-speed, broadband Internet access isn't available or
affordable to everyone in our state. That's why many cities across
America are investigating and implementing municipal wireless and
broadband networks. Some are even reducing the cost of deployment
using wireless Internet, known as WiFi, to reach everyone in the
community.
Big telephone and cable companies are trying to stop or slow down
this effort by communities to build municipal broadband and
wireless networks. If they get state legislatures to help them
block competition like they did in Pennsylvania, they could lose an
important incentive to build their networks to connect the
underserved. Municipal wireless and broadband networks could
provide competition to expand availability, lower prices and
improve service. Everyone should be able to connect to the
educational, economic and cultural benefits of the Internet.
Please support efforts to allow towns, cities, and counties to
deploy municipal broadband and wireless networks and resist any
efforts to block their deployment. And as communities explore how
to build universal, affordable, open networks, I also encourage you
to explore partnerships to build upon the skills and expertise of
an experienced telecommunications workforce.
That national security state officials
routinely mislead and deceive the public should never have even been
in serious doubt in the first place – certainly not for journalists,
and especially now after
the experience of the Iraq War. That fact — that official pronouncements merit great skepticism rather
than reverence — should be (but plainly is not) fundamental to how
journalists view the world.