Disappearing Edward Snowden--"1984" Was an Instruction Manual- (Whistleblowers & Search Engines))

[KoKo]

by Whistleblower Peter Van Buren (at TomGram)

What if Edward Snowden was made to disappear? No, I’m not suggesting some future CIA rendition effort or a who-killed-Snowden conspiracy theory of a disappearance, but a more ominous kind.

What if everything a whistleblower had ever exposed could simply be made to go away? What if every National Security Agency (NSA) document Snowden released, every interview he gave, every documented trace of a national security state careening out of control could be made to disappear in real-time? What if the very posting of such revelations could be turned into a fruitless, record-less endeavor?

Am I suggesting the plot for a novel by some twenty-first century George Orwell? Hardly. As we edge toward a fully digital world, such things may soon be possible, not in science fiction but in our world — and at the push of a button. In fact, the earliest prototypes of a new kind of “disappearance” are already being tested. We are closer to a shocking, dystopian reality that might once have been the stuff of futuristic novels than we imagine. Welcome to the memory hole.

Government and Corporate Digital Censorship

Increasingly, most of us now get our news, books, music, TV, movies, and communications of every sort electronically. These days, Google earns more advertising revenue than all U.S. print media combined. Even the venerable Newsweek no longer publishes a paper edition. And in that digital world, a certain kind of “simplification” is being explored. The Chinese, Iranians, and others are, for instance, already implementing web-filtering strategies to block access to sites and online material of which their governments don’t approve. The U.S. government similarly (if somewhat fruitlessly) blocks its employees from viewing Wikileaks and Edward Snowden material (as well as websites like TomDispatch) on their work computers -- though not of course at home. Yet.

Great Britain, however, will soon take a significant step toward deciding what a private citizen can see on the web even while at home. Before the end of the year, almost all Internet users there will be “opted-in” to a system designed to filter out pornography. By default, the controls will also block access to "violent material," "extremist and terrorist related content," "anorexia and eating disorder websites," and "suicide related websites." In addition, the new settings will censor sites mentioning alcohol or smoking. The filter will also block "esoteric material," though a UK-based rights group says the government has yet to make clear what that category will include.

And government-sponsored forms of Internet censorship are being privatized. New, off-the-shelf commercial products guarantee that an organization does not need to be the NSA to block content. For example, the Internet security company Blue Coat is a domestic leader in the field and a major exporter of such technology. It can easily set up a system to monitor and filter all Internet usage, blocking web sites by their address, by keywords, or even by the content they contain. Among others, Blue Coat software is used by the U.S. Army to control what its soldiers see while deployed abroad, and by the repressive governments in Syria, Saudi Arabia, and Burma to block outside political ideas.

Google Search...

In a sense, Google Search already “disappears” material. Right now Google is the good guy vis-à-vis whistleblowers. A quick Google search (0.22 seconds) turns up more than 48 million hits on Edward Snowden, most of them referencing his leaked NSA documents. Some of the websites display the documents themselves, still labeled “Top Secret.” Less than half a year ago, you had to be one of a very limited group in the government or contractually connected to it to see such things. Now, they are splayed across the web.

(He goes on about how Google is already prioritizing what we see in the rest of the article and how Amazon and others are already controlling access)

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MORE of a CHILLING but FORWARD THINKING READ AND CAUTION from Whistleblower Peter Van Buren at:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175779/tomgram%3A_peter_van_buren%2C_1984_was_an_instruction_manual_/

[Oscarmonster13]

1. that's some scary shit

and I don't doubt they are already using it in some aspects. We are all so glued to our internet, but the overlords only allow enough illusion to make us *think* we're free...

[KoKo]

3. I would think (like you) that many DU'ers would find this SCARY...

It's an important post from "former whistleblower" that really has such a "ring of truth" to what we will be faced with in coming years that it sends chills down our spines.

Well..those of us who remember reading "ORWELL" that is. I worry that his books are not mentioned or discussed in the CLASSROOMS OF AMERICAN SCHOOLS these days....

What if "Orwell" himself has already BEEN BANISHED?

[Oscarmonster13]

4. I don't think they have taught that one in at least a decade...

maybe more?

What is frightening to me most of all is the complacency factor. Add to that the meme that govt pushes that whistle blowers are 'terrorists'... does that mean that anyone who supports the act of whistleblowing is also a terrorist sympathizer? Well then ... the likes of me & you are screwed

fucking so wrong.

[hardcover]

2. Thanx for finding this.

sent to printer, will have it framed.

[Oscarmonster13]

6. good idea...

hardcopies may be the only thing we have left. Then again, if you are caught with a hardcopy of what has been 'memory-holed' you could end up like Winston in 1984 *shudder*

[Oscarmonster13]

5. kick

...and why are there so few responses to this story? That's kinda scary in itself...

[blkmusclmachine]

7. ,

,