Digital Paranoia: Fear Mongering for Freedom of Speech as Cyberterrorism

There is an Article on Forbes that discusses the CyberSecurity act of 2012, yet another Bill in the battle for Internet Censorship. We won’t go into detail here about how this Power Grid shutdown theory is more than likely not true, for if it was true, something would have been done about it already (When bugs in programs are found they are patched, not left open for abuse. Phishing Test determines the vulnerability level of your network and certain action is taken to improve it.). Not to mention that Anonymous has never harbored any ill will against the general people, only corporations and government, leaving one to wonder why the media is claiming they are going to engage in a malicious act against the people. This seems very similar to the DNS Server DDoS  Attack Rumor also being promoted throughout the internet. It almost seems that someone is trying recruit the minds of the public to view Anonymous as a Terrorist group that is a threat to the people, not just a threat the MPAA, RIAA and Child Pornographers.

This is a huge attempt to create fear in something that most people in the United States understand even less than the Middle East…the internet, and the internet elite.

Fear mongering is terrible, I can’t believe they are using Broadcast Media to make people fear Anonymous; It’s a very aggressive power play by both those in political power and corporate interests, if we are not careful they will strip grotesque amounts of freedom from us through well funded media campaigns and rumor mills.

Both television media and the internet are outlets for news media and information; the internet however, actually has public input and feedback. What the government doesn’t understand is in 2012, people will not just see The One Truth of Broadcast Media, but instead be faced with reports, information, and conversation online that may refute or contradict the nightly news. These mixed messages will either confuse or enlighten the people. Eventually online sources will discover and start reporting on the fear mongering found in Broadcast Media and general press. But will it do anything? Is the amount of people who use the internet as their primary news source at critical mass?

This is a very scary time for the net, and for technology in general.

With the way things are going, the only clear government solutions are extremes. Block this, ban that, monitor these.  I have a simpler two step solution:

1. Ban the use of technology except to authorized government officials that are allowed to use, develop, or heck, know about tech.
2. Dumb down whatever tech we need to use day to day, so that you won’t ever have to understand how it works.

Sarcasm aside, extreme measures like this seem to be the only way the government knows how to control Cybercrime and piracy, because they do not understand it. Their methods and ideology of control and enforcement methods are outdated, archaic, and dangerous!

If anything like this were to pass, it would be a huge step in the wrong direction. Even without it, the constant stream of Proposed Censorship Bills coupled with News Articles on “Cyber Terrorism” and “Online Piracy” are having a huge effect. It is creating an effect of Digital Paranoia in businesses as well as at home.

I can already feel the fear of expressing myself online building. Even as I talk about privacy, piracy, freedom of speech and other issues in Google+, I fear I will be grouped up as an Anonymous member, supporter, etc, of which I am not.

But soon, even discussing these issues will be synonymous with Terrorism. That is what they are trying to do, isn’t that frightening in it of itself?

I am afraid that all those who tweet and have tweeted about SOPA, PIPA, and Piracy will be monitored by the government (at least more heavily than everyone else.)

I am afraid for kids who retweet posts by Anonymous and hang out in their IRC channel thinking they are “cool”, not knowing that a yet to be known Bill could pass, grab records of their past yet innocent involvement (even if just looking, guilty by association) and end up losing their internet access, freedoms (jail), careers, and more.

I am afraid of the stand that I took against Internet Censorship on January 18th, along with millions of other concerned citizens in the USA and around the world; because it may label me a “target“, “threat” or “collaborator“.

I am really afraid of what is coming, and I am not sure if it can be stopped. Has the will of the people been sapped so much, by years of direct message marketing and politicking through television media advertisement, that it cannot make a change?

Congress continues to push Bills through the system to try and get “something” passed, and lately a real heavy focus has been on the topic of “Internet Control“. Yet, the same senators who have been defeated continue to bring up Bill after Bill, under the guise of different names, ethics and subjects. These politicians receive no retort for their actions, only funding from their corporate friends and lobbyists. They have never stopped to consider that the people, the internet, may want to be left alone to express themselves freely.

Why is it that when companies and politicians finally join the international playground that is the internet, the first thing they want to do is seize control of the swings and kick the cool kids out?