Glenn Greenwald on the Growing Surveillance State

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/glenn_greenwald_on_the_growing_surveillance_state_20110819/

Days after two British men were sentenced to four years in prison for using Facebook to incite disorder that never materialized, Glenn Greenwald writes fluently and concisely about the efforts of governments to maintain power and order by controlling the flow of information and communication online. —ARK

Glenn Greenwald at Salon:

The free flow of information and communications enabled by new technologies—as protest movements in the Middle East and a wave of serious leaks over the last year have demonstrated—is a uniquely potent weapon in challenging entrenched government power and other powerful factions. And that is precisely why those in power—those devoted to preservation of the prevailing social order—are so increasingly fixated on seizing control of it and snuffing out its potential for subverting that order: they are well aware of, and are petrified by, its power, and want to ensure that the ability to dictate how it is used, and toward what ends, remains exclusively in their hands.

The Western World has long righteously denounced China for its attempts to control the Internet as a means of maintaining social order. It even more vocally condemned Arab regimes such as the one in Egypt for shutting down Internet and cell phone service in order to disrupts protests.

More at the link --

[cutlassmama]

1. they are coming for "the people" next