The Dark Side

For every invention there are those that love it and those who are suspicious of it. So it has been since the very beginnings of innovation. The new brings both hope and fear. While it is difficult to advocate complete skepticism when it comes to shifts in the social paradigm, some reasonable caution is warranted.

When Social Media first arose on the scene, few thought much of it. Largely the bastion of university students and cute cat videos, early iterations were interesting but nothing to write hyperbole heavy, alarmist op-eds about. Unlike television which already boasted a polemic screed, demonizing it as potentially fatal (Amusing Ourselves to Death; Neil Postman, 1985).

As tends to happen Social Media has gotten a bit more sophisticated and not only has it gone mainstream but has come, in various forms, to dominate the modern cultural paradigm like none of the traditional media forms can. Traditional media certainly still exists and the truly ancient ones such as books will more than likely persist in some form but there is now no denying that Social Media is the future. At least until the next thing comes along, as it has at regular intervals for the last hundred years.

In the meantime it is prudent to acclimatize ourselves as well as we can to the systems and strictures in which we are trapped.

While Social Media can and has been used with great effectiveness in the fight for social change, there is another side to this dynamic that is less talked about. The fact that digital information is a two way street and while Twitter and Facebook and the like can be used for purposes of organization and dissemination of information, they can also be means by which the government can monitor dissident activities. There seems to be a conception that leaders, particularly dictators, are retrograde and would not know how to use technology to their advantage. 

While true in some cases in others to assume this can be a fatal mistake. The Iranian Ministry of Intelligence has been quite effective in the realm of cyber intelligence, digital surveillance being a major source of their intelligence.

In 2016 Lebanese authorities arrested university student Bassel al-Amin because he had been critical of Lebanon's leadership on Facebook. Though, it turns out that one does not even need to be openly critical or dissident to rouse suspicion. A university student in Belarus was arrested and questioned in connection with the burgeoning resistance movement in that country, simply because he had a few know dissidents on his friend-list. Perhaps not all that surprising considering the former Soviet state maintains a secret intelligence service which still referred to as the KGB. Not that the American government would do this. Not the land of the free and home of the brave. The First Amendment is sacred. Just ask Edward Snowden.

The internet can be a great and liberating place and net democratization has done more good than harm. Just keep in mind that anyone can see what you put online, so if you want to use it for something the powers that be might come down on, no matter how innocent it might be, be careful where you put it and protect yourself with encryption and proxy serves. Nothing is foolproof but it can't hurt.