Even accepting that free speech ends where criminal law begins, that doesn’t justify fining the platforms. If people are posting “illegal” content, go after them for breaking the law. Don’t go after the tools they use. By putting massive liability risks on platforms, those platforms will almost certainly overcompensate and over censor to avoid any risk of liability. That means a tremendous amount of what should be protected speech gets silence, just because these companies don’t want to get fined. Even worse, the big platforms can maybe hire people to handle this. The littler platforms? They basically can’t risk operating in Germany any more. Berlin is a hotbed of startups, but this is going to seriously harm many of them.
UK Snoopers Charter to be challenged in court
By HAX on July 3, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Data Retention, Human rights, Privacy, surveillance, UK
It’s become clearer than ever in recent months that this law is not fit for purpose. The government doesn’t need to spy on the entire population to fight terrorism. All that does is undermine the very rights, freedoms and democracy terrorists seek to destroy.
The Register: Civil rights warriors get green light to challenge UK mass surveillance »
Autonomous surveillance vehicles now to be deployed
Last month, Privacy News Online wrote about the first arrest by UK police using an automatic facial recognition system mounted on a vehicle to scan people in a crowd. But things move quickly in the world of surveillance technologies: the police in Dubai have announced that they will be deploying facial recognition systems mounted on autonomous vehicles by the end of 2017.
Glyn Moody @ PNO » Our surveillance future: pervasive, continuous facial recognition from wandering robo-cars and hovering drones »
UK: Go to prison – for a joke?
By HAX on July 3, 2017 in Big Brother, Censorship, Civil liberties, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Human rights, Police state, social media
“Scottish comedian and YouTuber Markus Meechan, better known as Count Dankula, is facing a year in prison for recording and uploading a video where he taught his girlfriend’s pet dog how to “seig heil” on command. As Heat Street reported earlier this year the viral video did not amuse Scottish police, prompting his arrest.” (…)
“On Wednesday, Meechan posted an update about his case. “Legal aid application was rejected,” he posted on Twitter. ‘I’m fucked.'”
Heatstreet: Scottish YouTuber Who Faces Prison Over a Joke Can’t Get a Lawyer »
The Control Society
By HAX on July 2, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Government, Big Media, Censorship, Civil rights, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Human rights, Internet, Transparency
The control of information is something the elite always does, particularly in a despotic form of government.
Information, knowledge, is power. If you can control information, you can control people.
Tom Clancy
One wiretap order – 3.29 million calls intercepted
By HAX on July 2, 2017 in Big Brother, Data Retention, Law enforcement, Police state, Privacy, surveillance, US
US authorities intercepted and recorded millions of phone calls last year under a single wiretap order, authorized as part of a narcotics investigation.
The wiretap order authorized an unknown government agency to carry out real-time intercepts of 3.29 million cell phone conversations over a two-month period at some point during 2016, after the order was applied for in late 2015.
ZDnet: With a single wiretap order, US authorities listened in on 3.3 million phone calls »
Big Media owned news aggregator deal used as argument for link tax
Techdirt: First And Only Snippet Tax Deal In Spain Is With Big Supporter Of Snippet Tax In Germany »
Are we doomed? Maybe not.
By HAX on June 28, 2017 in Big Brother, Big Government, Civil rights, Democracy, Free Information, Freedom of Speech, Hacktivism, Human rights, Police state, Privacy, Rule of law, surveillance
I just read an interesting piece at Bloomberg: The Hackers Russia-Proofing Germany’s Elections »
It’s about the German Chaos Computer Club – CCC – and its fight for a free, open democratic society with a free flow of information. At the end, member Jan Krissler is quoted saying…
»All the stuff will happen in the end.«
He then adds »Maybe I’m too skeptical about our influence.«
The looming questions. Are they winning? Are we losing? If so, what will the consequences be? Is it already too late to fight Big Brother?
For decades I have in one way or another been into politics and communication. One thing that I have learned is that you must be ridiculously persistent. You will be fed up repeating the same arguments over and over again – to people who are not interested or do not want to understand. They will ignore you, they will laugh at you and they will fight you.
Then you win. It has been done before. When the Internet stopped ACTA is one of a number of very real victories in the EU. It’s all about leaving your comfort zone – and give what it takes to win. Again. And again.
Because we must! A modern, slightly superstitious, politicized, high-tech Big Brother state will be insufferable. Orwell, meet Kafka.
This is about the power balance between citizens and the state. This is about upholding fundamental human rights. This is – ultimately – about democracy. And it is for real.
Bigbrotherism tends to be irreversible. When mass surveillance is in place, it is very hard to undo and will inevitably be followed by more. When civil rights are restricted, they might be lost forever. And we have absolutely no idea about who will be in power in the future. But it’s highly likely that – sooner or later – it will be some pretty nasty people. (As if today’s politicians aren’t scary enough.) Please, do not leave them tools of oppression and total control.
So, losing is not an option.
To win, I believe that we must stand on strong and unrestrainable principles. The UN, EU, and Council of Europe declarations on human rights. The fundamental pillars and the deeper values of liberal democracy. What the Germans (who learned the hard way, twice) call »Rechtstaat«. Division of power. Openness.
It must be commonly known that there is an ongoing battle, where peaceful activists passionately are defending democracy – and politicians and bureaucrats are trying to restrict it. This image must be reflected in the media and in the public mind.
Remember that action is the most powerful way to communicate – and necessary for anything to happen at all.
Trying to repress Democracy must come at an extremely high political price. If we don’t draw a red line, our overlords will find that there are, actually, no real limits to their power. (And having power over others does unfortunate things to people.)
Fight fair, endure, stand on a few exceptionally strong principles – and you will eventually win.
Finally, we cannot have all these different fights over and over again. This must come to some sort of horizontal, binding resurrection of privacy, civil rights and freedom of information.
(And whatever you do, do not allow politicians to »modernize« our existing human rights conventions. These should be very imposing and inconvenient obstacles – to prevent governments from doing whatever they want.)
Take this fight to national politics. Confront politicians and their functionaries. Give the media a wake-up-call. And let’s make all of this an Issue at the European elections – as much of today’s Bigbroterism originates in the EU.
May the Force be with you.
/ HAX
Why you should bother
By HAX on June 27, 2017 in Big Brother, Civil rights, Democracy, Human rights, Privacy, surveillance
It bothers me that if an FBI agent reads this and doesn’t like what I’ve written, he or she can do a search for any of my communications the government might have “incidentally” grabbed under Section 702. Literally. Right now. Without a warrant.
Sarah St.Vincent in The Hill: Why US surveillance bothers me — and should bother you »
What can possibly go wrong?
Britain’s largest ever warship is not “vulnerable” to cyber-attacks despite running on Microsoft Windows XP, a 20 year-old operating system, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon has said.
Huffington Post: Britain’s Largest Warship Uses Windows XP And It’s Totally Fine, Says Michael Fallon »