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The Digital Dictatorship: The Myth of the Techno-Utopia

23 points by grellas 17y ago

barrkel 17y ago
It's the usual story of every technology: it's an amplifier. For non-technical users, it's very easy to be lulled into a false sense of anonymity, yet actually be monitored more closely than has ever been possible. And this is not only happening in authoritarian states, but in supposedly free ones, and there isn't much in the way of public outcry because the general public doesn't even notice.
rbanffy 17y ago
When an IT professional allows his or her work to be turned into tools for oppression, it diminishes us all.
- fnid2 17y ago
  Don't work on anything open source then. How can one stop another person from using open source to oppress people?
  - rbanffy 17y ago
    And how can anyone stop someone from using proprietary software to oppress someone else? Do you really believe that if Oracle decides they won't sell Peoplesoft licenses to, say, General Zod, that would create as much as a minor inconvenience? License terms only work when all parts agree they have to respect them.
jsm386 17y ago
Technology can be used for good and bad. Who knew? But more seriously, an article this long, addressing this question should have looked at recent events like the Orange Revolution in Ukraine as a counterpoint: Text messaging played an integral role in Ukraine's pro-democracy protests in late 2004 and early 2005, known as the "Orange Revolution." As in the Philippines, protesters used mobiles to help organize a massive protest against fraudulent election results, which eventually led to a re-vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters -- particularly young people -- were able to coordinate their activities through the use of SMS. Gene J. Koprowski, of United Press International, writes, "The court-ordered election rematch in Ukraine this past Sunday, featuring opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, probably would not have happened were it not for mobile phone technologies." From http://mobileactive.org/mobiles-in-mass-organizing http://mobileactive.org/mobiles-in-mass-organizing More from the BBC: Text message-obsessed Filipinos used SMS to help bring down President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Organisers say text messages accelerated the scandal-ridden Estrada's exit by two months to two years. In March, opposition leaders in Lebanon used telephones, e-mail and text messaging to organise massive anti-Syrian protests after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4496163.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4496163.stm
hristov 17y ago
This is one of those WSJ articles that is wrong in so many ways you don't quite know how to start refuting it.
akkartik 17y ago
This article had multiple points; I found it useful to take notes and summarize: http://akkartik.name/blog/2010-02-20-23-55-51-soc http://akkartik.name/blog/2010-02-20-23-55-51-soc Tell me what I missed.

23 points by grellas 17y ago

It's the usual story of every technology: it's an amplifier. For non-technical users, it's very easy to be lulled into a false sense of anonymity, yet actually be monitored more closely than has ever been possible. And this is not only happening in authoritarian states, but in supposedly free ones, and there isn't much in the way of public outcry because the general public doesn't even notice.

rbanffy 17y ago

When an IT professional allows his or her work to be turned into tools for oppression, it diminishes us all.

fnid2 17y ago
Don't work on anything open source then. How can one stop another person from using open source to oppress people?
- rbanffy 17y ago
  And how can anyone stop someone from using proprietary software to oppress someone else? Do you really believe that if Oracle decides they won't sell Peoplesoft licenses to, say, General Zod, that would create as much as a minor inconvenience? License terms only work when all parts agree they have to respect them.

jsm386 17y ago

Technology can be used for good and bad. Who knew? But more seriously, an article this long, addressing this question should have looked at recent events like the Orange Revolution in Ukraine as a counterpoint: Text messaging played an integral role in Ukraine's pro-democracy protests in late 2004 and early 2005, known as the "Orange Revolution." As in the Philippines, protesters used mobiles to help organize a massive protest against fraudulent election results, which eventually led to a re-vote. Hundreds of thousands of voters -- particularly young people -- were able to coordinate their activities through the use of SMS. Gene J. Koprowski, of United Press International, writes, "The court-ordered election rematch in Ukraine this past Sunday, featuring opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, probably would not have happened were it not for mobile phone technologies." From http://mobileactive.org/mobiles-in-mass-organizing http://mobileactive.org/mobiles-in-mass-organizing More from the BBC: Text message-obsessed Filipinos used SMS to help bring down President Joseph Estrada in 2001. Organisers say text messages accelerated the scandal-ridden Estrada's exit by two months to two years. In March, opposition leaders in Lebanon used telephones, e-mail and text messaging to organise massive anti-Syrian protests after the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4496163.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4496163.stm

hristov 17y ago

This is one of those WSJ articles that is wrong in so many ways you don't quite know how to start refuting it.

akkartik 17y ago

This article had multiple points; I found it useful to take notes and summarize: http://akkartik.name/blog/2010-02-20-23-55-51-soc http://akkartik.name/blog/2010-02-20-23-55-51-soc Tell me what I missed.