Mark Zuckerberg wants everyone to friend Facebook. And the billionaire CEO of Facebook does mean everyone.
Recently he announced a grand new plan : internet.org, a consortium of corporations and government agencies that will harness an array of drones, satellites and other technologies to wrap the entire world in a vast global WiFi.
The primary government partner? None other than the US National Security Agency.
This is beyond sinister, says writer/internet activist/organizer Alfredo Lopez. “The NSA spies on everyone it can. It collects all the data it can. It has shown no respect for people’s rights or for constitutional restrictions. It is a criminal organization and, under this plan, it would control Internet access for large parts of the world.”
So much easier than the cumbersome business of Facebook handing over our data to the NSA. Via internet.org they can both vacuum it up at the same time.
And note that drones, which already serve as Big Brother’s remote-control weapon of mass destruction, will be among the primary vehicles.
Follow the ever-deepening surveillance story in Bold Scientists: dispatches from the battle for honest science, coming from Between the Lines, autumn 2014.
So says Turkish social media analyst Zeynep Tufekci in the online magazine Matter.
Photo: Nurphoto
“It’s time to rethink our nightmares about surveillance.”
Writing from Istanbul’s huge Gezi Park protests, and from his investigations in social media, Tufekci looks provocatively at the paradox of Twitter as a medium for connection and resistance, but also a powerful tool for state-corporate surveillance and control.
Canada’s Science Library Closures Mirror Bush’s Playbook. Details here. More detail in The Tyee’s follow-up story, here.
This is the next step in an escalating right-wing war on honest science and public knowledge, both of which the authorities fear and despise.
Their target, says Canadian paleolimnologist John Smol, is “pesky data” that challenges the government’s corporate agenda. They’ve already gutted a long hit list of vital research programs in Canada, including the world famous Experimental Lakes Area research facility.
John Smol: “The ELA has been a jewel in Canada’s crown – go to any water conference in the world, you just have to say ELA and everyone knows what you’re talking about. And it costs nothing to maintain. $2 million, what’s that, a penny per Canadian, so we don’t get toxic algae blooms, acid rain? It’s like claiming to save medical costs by not letting people have tests and checkups, the long-term data you need to maintain health. The ELA is exactly the kind of thing responsible government should be doing. So why are they closing the ELA? Because it provided pesky data, that’s why.”
(Follow this story in Pesky Data: unspun science for dangerous times. Coming in 2014 from Between the Lines.)
Scientists and other citizens who value public knowledge are resisting the destruction. At a public protest in Ottawa, thousands of scientists carried banners declaring: No Science, No Evidence; No Truth, No Democracy. The stakes are that high.
I have no illusions about the real impact of petitions. But at least the current leaders need to know that some of us are opposed. Here is an opportunity to say so.
Evidence for Democracy is a Canadian organization of scientists and citizens “who care passionately about the role that evidence needs to play in decision-making.” Recently they sent out this urgent appeal:
Irreplaceable scientific information is disappearing due to the recent closure of seven libraries run by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) and a number of Environment Canada and Natural Resources Canada libraries.
Scientists are saying that many of the books, reports and data at these libraries have already been discarded or destroyed without being properly digitized.
This priceless information is essential for the protection and security of Canada’s waterways. In particular, historical data and information provides the only baseline by which changes in the state of Canada’s aquatic ecosystems and fisheries resources can be evaluated. Without such trend data, assessing the impacts of policy and management decisions is impossible.
Please send a message to the federal party leaders and your member of parliament calling on them to stop closing our science libraries, and to ensure that the remaining information from the closed libraries is made available in a timely fashion.
In 2012, you may have joined a national campaign to block their highly invasive online spying legislation, Bill C-30. The government claimed it would “help police combat child pornography.” But many critics, including the federal privacy commissioner, noticed the sweeping legislation would force internet service providers to maintain systems allowing police to intercept and track online communications without a warrant, effectively wiping out fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of speech. The intent was clear: Increased powers for a surveillance-obsessed regime.
OpenMedia.ca led a national campaign to kill the Bill. In February 2013, the federal Minister of Justice announced that the government “would not proceed” with Bill C-30. “We’ve listened to the concerns of Canadians who have been very clear on this.” Nor, he added, would the government pursue any other measures for “the warrantless mandatory disclosure of basic subscriber information or the requirement for telecommunications service providers to build intercept capability within their systems.”
Turns out they lied.
Now known as Bill C-13, the undead spy bill is back. Now they claim it’s to fight cyberbullying. A good thing to fight. But it’s a cover. Bill C-13 consists of just 2.5 pages aimed at cyberbullying, and 65 pages aimed at making it easier for the government to spy on the online activities of all Canadians. These provisions are lifted straight from Bill C-30. Micheal Vonn, BC Civil Liberties Association: “This is not a bill about cyberbullying. It’s a bill essentially to reintroduce most of the components of Bill C-30, despite the government’s assurances that they would not do so.”
It’s not too late to join the resistance. Here’s how.
(Follow this story in What next? Doing science in dangerous times. Coming in 2014 from Between the Lines.)
Through Access to Information searches, investigative journalist Matthew Millar reveals in the Vancouver Observer that the National Energy Board, a federal agency, coordinates a secret ongoing surveillance campaign against Alberta tar-sands opponents. The NEB collaborates with CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service), the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which has its own national security apparatus), as well as private corporations implicated in the Alberta tar-sands and proposed pipelines.
This makes sense only as an (ideo)logical extension of the Harper regime’s faithful service to the oil and gas industry, combined with the paranoia of a repressive regime, as in:
The primary government partner? None other than the US National Security Agency.
Michael Riordon 