The problem with this definitions is not that they are wrong, they aren't, the problem is consequences. DDR was much smaller than US and his program was more l

The problem with this definitions is not that they are wrong, they aren't, the problem is consequences. DDR was much smaller than US and his program was more limited than any actual one, given the advancements in technology of the past decades. And yet, STASI was much more effective and disruptive than many other similar projects before and after. At its peak STASI employed around 2% of the entire East Germany population. With the information gathered and the prevention of external influences, they could literally convince people that they were living in the best World possible using just a tiny wall and propaganda. Those who denied it, doubted about it, had contacts with western entities or were suspected of conspiring against the SED, were incapacitated, it doesn't imply they were killed on the spot, but they were made harmless, arrested, hospitalized, institutionalized in psychiatric wards or "disappeared" in concentration camps.