I'm a socialist!
Probably not - on my good days I verge on anarchy and on my bad days I stop verging - but at least my title got some attention.
Anyway, as you may or may not know, the censorship of social media scares the crap out of me. Freedom of communication is a human right, and we already have enough repression in the world as it is without governments deciding to crack down on it some more.
In this day and age, social networking is more than just important - it's a part of life. Facebook helps one keep in touch with one's friends and acquaintances, while Twitter is a great (and addictive) way to keep up with all of one's favourite causes. Youtube's great for sharing things, BBM is a way of life for some people...I could go on, but I won't.
Some people might like to butt in right now and say that social networking is a Bad Thing. Yes, with the capitals as well. They might smirk at the recent sentencing of two men or deplore the moral collapse of society when they see a bottle blonde in a short skirt and a see-through top. Those people are welcome to their opinion (which, by the way, I heartily disagree with), but they're missing out on a lot of news, interaction and differing social viewpoints; at times I feel almost sorry for them.
Apologies for my digression. Anyway, apart from being social media, what do Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and BBM have in common?
They're all owned by private companies more interested in turning a profit than in the people who help them make their money.
I don't really trust big business that much, a condition brought on by the recession and by reading too much left-wing media. Still, capitalism puts food on the table and if a person wants to make money, I have no problem with that as long as they don't harm innocents. Where it gets slightly problematic is where a duty to people and a duty to making money conflict - and businesses will choose the latter to ensure their own survival. This is never a good thing, but when these businesses have people's personal details things start getting a little bit worse for everyone.
You see, if companies have a duty to money before people, they won't care so much about little things like freedom of speech and opinion - as has happened with Facebook. Youtube has acceded to takedown requests by companies - which isn't great, but is understandable - and the government, which is simply sickening. Research In Motion, the company behind BlackBerries, promised to assist the government in tracking down rioters - which is all very well and good until you realise that it might well be handing over personal information to the government, and that it would probably do the same thing if a more...shall we say repressive government had asked for help. In other words, it sets an extremely bad precedent for who gets their grubby mitts on the personal data of private citizens. In fact, any communications network operating in the UK can be forced to hand over messages if the police can show they relate to criminal behaviour.
The upshot of all this is that companies don't give a shit about people, freedom, democracy, human rights, or privacy. They care about profits, making themselves look good and covering their own asses. And yet we continue to give them our personal information, because every day it gets more and more difficult to get the required information simply by word of mouth. I'm sure such a deal would be illegal if this were any other situation, yet it's gone unnoticed - and I see only one practical way out.
We need social networks and services made by the people, for the people, and owned by the people - not the state! We need something which puts people first rather than money, something which can be trusted never to hand information over to a government and which would never bow to censorship. That's my dream for social media - a pipe dream, some might call it. And it's unlikely to happen - but for the sake of our welfare as private citizens, for the sake of human rights, for the sake of being protected from oppression - it must. I don't think we have a choice in this matter.
And no, the irony of posting this on a service owned by a private company is not lost on me. Then again, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
Anyway, as you may or may not know, the censorship of social media scares the crap out of me. Freedom of communication is a human right, and we already have enough repression in the world as it is without governments deciding to crack down on it some more.
In this day and age, social networking is more than just important - it's a part of life. Facebook helps one keep in touch with one's friends and acquaintances, while Twitter is a great (and addictive) way to keep up with all of one's favourite causes. Youtube's great for sharing things, BBM is a way of life for some people...I could go on, but I won't.
Some people might like to butt in right now and say that social networking is a Bad Thing. Yes, with the capitals as well. They might smirk at the recent sentencing of two men or deplore the moral collapse of society when they see a bottle blonde in a short skirt and a see-through top. Those people are welcome to their opinion (which, by the way, I heartily disagree with), but they're missing out on a lot of news, interaction and differing social viewpoints; at times I feel almost sorry for them.
Apologies for my digression. Anyway, apart from being social media, what do Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and BBM have in common?
They're all owned by private companies more interested in turning a profit than in the people who help them make their money.
I don't really trust big business that much, a condition brought on by the recession and by reading too much left-wing media. Still, capitalism puts food on the table and if a person wants to make money, I have no problem with that as long as they don't harm innocents. Where it gets slightly problematic is where a duty to people and a duty to making money conflict - and businesses will choose the latter to ensure their own survival. This is never a good thing, but when these businesses have people's personal details things start getting a little bit worse for everyone.
You see, if companies have a duty to money before people, they won't care so much about little things like freedom of speech and opinion - as has happened with Facebook. Youtube has acceded to takedown requests by companies - which isn't great, but is understandable - and the government, which is simply sickening. Research In Motion, the company behind BlackBerries, promised to assist the government in tracking down rioters - which is all very well and good until you realise that it might well be handing over personal information to the government, and that it would probably do the same thing if a more...shall we say repressive government had asked for help. In other words, it sets an extremely bad precedent for who gets their grubby mitts on the personal data of private citizens. In fact, any communications network operating in the UK can be forced to hand over messages if the police can show they relate to criminal behaviour.
The upshot of all this is that companies don't give a shit about people, freedom, democracy, human rights, or privacy. They care about profits, making themselves look good and covering their own asses. And yet we continue to give them our personal information, because every day it gets more and more difficult to get the required information simply by word of mouth. I'm sure such a deal would be illegal if this were any other situation, yet it's gone unnoticed - and I see only one practical way out.
We need social networks and services made by the people, for the people, and owned by the people - not the state! We need something which puts people first rather than money, something which can be trusted never to hand information over to a government and which would never bow to censorship. That's my dream for social media - a pipe dream, some might call it. And it's unlikely to happen - but for the sake of our welfare as private citizens, for the sake of human rights, for the sake of being protected from oppression - it must. I don't think we have a choice in this matter.
And no, the irony of posting this on a service owned by a private company is not lost on me. Then again, when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.
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