3 ms·
After Snowden, 20% decline in views on Wikipedia articles on terrorism (2016)
- hilbert42 6y agoJust came across this story four days after its listing and it seems my post is the first one. Given the story's mass surveillance topic, and as there's been no other posts up untill now, one could conclude that even HN readers now adopt self censorship and refrain from visiting certain sites for fear of being noticed. And I admit I'm one of them. Long before Snowden, probably as far back around 2000, I've kept away from searching for certain topics. It's annoying really as I'm curious about many things, but in these suspicious and overly-accusative times, I reckon there's little virtue in bringing unnecessary attention to oneself over just being mildly curious about something. The article's correct, times have changed. In the early days of the internet there was no way I would have so acted and self-censored myself as I do now. Most people automatically behave differently when they're being stared at or when others look over their shoulders. Remember at school when you couldn't do sums as well when your teacher was peering directly over your shoulder. (And this effect is not just limited to us humans, my partner's cat will stop eating its meal altogerher if I stare at it whilst its doing so.) There's no doubt this type of mass surveillance is widely debilitating and subjugates people. Even when it appears to be taking no action, just the fact that the State is forever watching leads to some degree of subjugation of its citizenry. Remember, the corollary of subjugation is totalitarianism.