In a milestone judgment—Podchasov v. Russia—the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that weakening of encryption can lead to general and indiscriminate surveillance of the communications of all users and violates the human right to privacy. In 2017, the landscape of digital...
I’m a bit pessimistic about that point. It seems that the main reason why the Internet was less regulated than, lets say, the TV market was the lack of awareness of the old authorities and policymakers. At the latest with the victory of Donald Trump, things have changed. Now the ruling class is beginning to believe in the world-changing power of the flow of (mis)information on the Internet.
Its important to note that it doesn’t matter how you think about this changes in terms of ethics or politics. The mayor event was the change of mind in regards to the internet as such. Before, the internet was seen as something new, yet not understond and/or a place were young people does childish pranks. The innocence is over, at least in their eyes.Unimportant is the question whether you believe the the world-changing power of the internet yourself. Maybe, the idea is even false and the internet isn’t that important. But you have the regulation of it on the political agenda. It takes years to come to a better knowleade. Sometimes, even ages.
Ya I get you but I think in the end it’s nothing really new. It seems like everything is just another rehash of something we already had. E.g. instead of killer bots we brainwashed kids into killing on command. Same with freedom.
What about freedom?
That it might seem like something new that internet freedom is being curtailed, but in a more generic way freedom was taken away from people in many ways already today and before in the past. Likewise how freedom has been gained countless times before will also apply to the internet in some form today and in the future. It just appears novel but it’s your every day human power dynamics at work.
I understand your point. Yes, its nothing new. We have seen limitetion of the freedom of expression in different times and ages.