This post is an exclusive interview with a representative of the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous. More interviews with members or representatives of different groups will follow in an attempt to present different points of views on the world and its issues. The interviewee goes by the name Fearless One.
Sunday, June 10, 2018
Monday, June 4, 2018
The Beginning of the End: FOSTA
Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act, also known as FOSTA - it's bad. The principle and reason for the law are good. However, I denounce and condemn the way in which this law attempts to alleviate this problem with all my being. A much better way to legislatively fight this issue would look something like this. When someone reports abuse on a website, not only does it go to the website staff, but a copy of the report is sent to the police. Additionally, the user reported is temporarily added to a public list. This ensures a separation of powers, and the public registry ensures that the complaint can't be swept under the rug by website or government officials.
So here's why FOSTA is so bad. With the current language, company executives or website admins WILL be punished for crimes they didn't commit, even if they didn't even know it happened. Some might argue that it is the responsibility of the company to regulate their website, which is true, but you can't punish people for things they didn't do or were unaware of.
That would be like if your neighbor placed a bomb in your backyard and you went to prison for it. You didn't place it there, and you didn't know it was there. But you're at fault. That is opposite to any known definition of justice.
Additionally, the government applies pressure on websites to censor their users - not just to monitor. Consider this. Facebook and Twitter have both attempted to remove ISIS from their platforms, but they were totally incapable without the help of the Anonymous opISIS. If companies are to ensure their financial viability and survival, they cannot just rely on the current systems that monitor users. They will need to take a VERY heavy hand in censoring their users.
Lastly, this establishes a precedent. It says to the states, the nation, and the world that this is what we do - that this is just. Our "representatives" have allowed a law to be passed that will ensure the destruction of anything that resembles justice. Now, we could see more laws that punish us for crimes we didn't commit. We could see more pressured censorship. We will probably see the slow demise of the entire internet.
This law needs to be repealed, NOW. It is the first step in the demise of the internet and the destruction of our rights. Let's take some advice from Mario Savio. "Sometimes, the form of the law is such as to render impossible its effective violation -- as a method to have it repealed. Sometimes, the grievances of people are more -- extend more -- to more than just the law, extend to a whole mode of arbitrary power, a whole mode of arbitrary exercise of arbitrary power."_ This is where we find ourselves now. This law is so intolerable and incompatible with life itself that we must exhaust every resource available at our disposal to see it shredded and burned beyond repair. Mario Savio said it this way. "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!"
We need to talk about this everywhere and with everyone, even among disagreements. We cannot be afraid to challenge what laws are unjust even when the intentions are good. If we do, then we are the ones at fault for making just what is unjust.
So here's why FOSTA is so bad. With the current language, company executives or website admins WILL be punished for crimes they didn't commit, even if they didn't even know it happened. Some might argue that it is the responsibility of the company to regulate their website, which is true, but you can't punish people for things they didn't do or were unaware of.
That would be like if your neighbor placed a bomb in your backyard and you went to prison for it. You didn't place it there, and you didn't know it was there. But you're at fault. That is opposite to any known definition of justice.
Additionally, the government applies pressure on websites to censor their users - not just to monitor. Consider this. Facebook and Twitter have both attempted to remove ISIS from their platforms, but they were totally incapable without the help of the Anonymous opISIS. If companies are to ensure their financial viability and survival, they cannot just rely on the current systems that monitor users. They will need to take a VERY heavy hand in censoring their users.
Lastly, this establishes a precedent. It says to the states, the nation, and the world that this is what we do - that this is just. Our "representatives" have allowed a law to be passed that will ensure the destruction of anything that resembles justice. Now, we could see more laws that punish us for crimes we didn't commit. We could see more pressured censorship. We will probably see the slow demise of the entire internet.
This law needs to be repealed, NOW. It is the first step in the demise of the internet and the destruction of our rights. Let's take some advice from Mario Savio. "Sometimes, the form of the law is such as to render impossible its effective violation -- as a method to have it repealed. Sometimes, the grievances of people are more -- extend more -- to more than just the law, extend to a whole mode of arbitrary power, a whole mode of arbitrary exercise of arbitrary power."_ This is where we find ourselves now. This law is so intolerable and incompatible with life itself that we must exhaust every resource available at our disposal to see it shredded and burned beyond repair. Mario Savio said it this way. "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart that you can't take part! You can't even passively take part! And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus -- and you've got to make it stop! And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it -- that unless you're free the machine will be prevented from working at all!!"
We need to talk about this everywhere and with everyone, even among disagreements. We cannot be afraid to challenge what laws are unjust even when the intentions are good. If we do, then we are the ones at fault for making just what is unjust.
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