Oh, Edward Snowden. What a beautiful mess you’ve created. It’s been quite some time now since America, and other nations alike, have discovered that we are the victims of the government spying on our media usage, posts, phone calls, and much more. Well, good ole Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the modern world wide web (thank you so much), has called for a bill of rights to protect freedom of speech on the internet and our rights as internet users.
Just some of the outlets that the government has/had used to tap into our extremely personal lives are Facebook, Google, and Skype, among many others I’m sure. As a result of Snowden’s information leak, Obama announced in January that reforms were being put into place to stop the eavesdropping on leaders and allies of the United States. Berners-Lee announced that it was time for this to be a “communal decision” because the act of eavesdropping and tapping into other countries personal information, as well as American citizen’s information, would be putting the future of democracy in jeopardy.
Berners-Lee basically stated that we need to do something about the issue or else we’re just enabling the government to become more corrupt with even more power than it needs and that since the internet is such a big part of human life today, it is indeed something that needs to be covered by basic rights. I couldn’t agree more.
Personally, I don’t understand the government’s fascination with eavesdropping into our media, reading endless Facebook posts and Tweets.
Imagine being the guy who has to sit there and read every single embarrassing comment your family members leave on your pictures, has to read the live Tweets from award shows, and who has to read your awkward Google searches. There are some crazies in this world who need to be watched, I think the creepiest part of it all is the fact that they’ve tapped into our phone calls. What exactly were they looking for between the lines when I asked my boyfriend where he wanted to go for dinner? I guess I’ll never know…
If the NSA has reason to target specific individuals, I could give them a little leeway. Without a doubt though, they’ve overstepped the information that needs to be gathered. I see no reason whatsoever why the government has to keep tabs on my status updates. It’s weird. Berners-Lee has spoken out in support of Snowden, saying that what he did was, “in the public interest.” Once again, I couldn’t agree more.
For the time being, it’s safe to say that all Google searches need to stay PG-13 and all status updates need to stay jovial and friendly. You never know who could be watching