Slashdot Mirror
Is US Surveillance Technology Propping Up Authoritarian Regimes? (washingtonpost.com)
A senior policy analyst from a non-partisan national security think tank -- and one of their cybersecurity policy fellows -- sound a dire warning in an op-ed shared by Slashdot reader schwit1:
From facial recognition software to GPS trackers to computer hacking tools to systems that monitor and redirect flows of Internet traffic, contemporary surveillance technologies enable "high levels of social control at a reasonable cost," as Nicholas Wright puts it in Foreign Affairs. But these technologies don't just aid and enable what Wright and other policy analysts have called "digital authoritarianism." They also promote a sovereign and controlled model of the Internet, one characterized by frequent censorship, pervasive surveillance and tight control by the state. The United States could be a world leader in preventing the spread of this Internet model, but to do so, we must reevaluate the role U.S. companies play in contributing to it....
On one hand, the United States cares deeply about protecting a global and open Internet... On the other hand, American companies are selling surveillance technology that undermines this mission -- contributing to the broader spread of digital authoritarianism that the United States claims to fight. (This also implicates allies such as Britain, whose companies have also sold surveillance technology to oppressive regimes.) We won't be able to allay this situation until the United States updates its approach to exporting surveillance technology. Of course, this must be done carefully. But digital authoritarianism is spreading, and U.S. companies need to stop helping it.-
On one hand, the United States cares deeply about protecting a global and open Internet... On the other hand, American companies are selling surveillance technology that undermines this mission -- contributing to the broader spread of digital authoritarianism that the United States claims to fight. (This also implicates allies such as Britain, whose companies have also sold surveillance technology to oppressive regimes.) We won't be able to allay this situation until the United States updates its approach to exporting surveillance technology. Of course, this must be done carefully. But digital authoritarianism is spreading, and U.S. companies need to stop helping it.-
It's not even a meaningful question, it's more an example of a bad attempt at linguistic programming.
Take a look at what it implies
1. Technology has a moral aspect in and of itself
2. The U.S. has a monopoly on any given technology
3. That it's actually possible to control the flow of technology (hint we can't even stop drugs or illegals from coming into our own country)
4. That it should even be our business what end users do with products.
The arrogance the above is astonishing even for what normally pops up here.
If the above hasn't started the gears spinning in your head about this try the following.
1. Is U.S. surplus food production propping up authoritarian regimes by making it easier to feed their people ?
2. Is our attempt to use more renewable energy propping up authoritarian regimes by creating demand for resources we won't produce ourselves ?
3. Does the u.s. manufacture of screwdrivers prop up authoritarian regimes since they use them to maintain their infrastructure.
Then there is the implied idea that somehow authoritarianism needs 21st century technology and hasn't been around since the time of Uruk and most likely long before that.