> These people will ban the Internet before giving up power and that will probably be met with relative apathy by the population - "well, if we have to suffer f

> These people will ban the Internet before giving up power and that will probably be met with relative apathy by the population - "well, if we have to suffer for our motherland, we will...". After the UK laptop ban on flights some people (who were British, not Russian) trotted out the old, 'well if it keeps us safe' mantra. I don't think you can, or should, generalise about tens of millions of people as if "they" are fundamentally different to "us" somehow, or more willing to tolerate a reduction in their freedoms. > Interestingly, we, the software community, are also unknowingly giving a huge helping hand to "these guys" Free speech, encryption, privacy rights help bad guys too. Your argument here is pretty much how (would-be) totalitarian states put it. > We've open sourced so much technology that any student can put together powerful country-wide surveillance and control systems, offering incredible powers to whoever is the alpha male around there, for free... If any student can access, use, understand and modify the technology, it actually takes power away from the alpha males and puts it into the hands of less powerful people (anyone/everyone).