NOPA to SOPA: Don’t Be Like China
I lived and worked in a small Chinese city for a year, returning to the NY metro area in late 2006.
A large part of my return came from a then-new appreciation for America’s civil liberties, which are far too often taken for granted by the average American. I know: I was one of them.
I changed my tune after enduring the subtle terror of Big Brother in China (). We’re taught through dystopian literature (like 1984) and the US media’s propagandized coverage of dictatorships (like North Korea) that the specter of totalitarianism is brutal, blatant, and impossible to happen here.
The true story is far more insidious and far more terrifying because totalitarianist control is quiet, propagated through euphemisms, and almost always purports to be better for the people who are being controlled by it.
I met Chinese people who truly believed that having the government censor websites, emails, newspapers, and letters prevents the country’s collapse. Do you want to live in a country that only survives because the government controls your every thought, word, and deed?
What do you make of the CIA and FBI rifling through your credit card records? If someone in these or related organizations suspects you of a crime — not charged, just suspected — you can bet that your cell phone locations, your credit card records, maybe even your Google email are being demanded and received by the agency.
But I’m innocent, I’ve got nothing to hide.
The “I’ve got nothing to hide” argument is common and wrong. First of all, everyone has something to hide. Whether it’s something you’re ashamed of doing as a young person, a failure at work, or an actual criminal offense (ha!), everyone has something they don’t want the world to know, good or bad.
And if you do believe that you have nothing to hide, why aren’t you telling your friends your salary, your medical history, your physical movements of the past 48 hours? It’s because the argument isn’t right versus wrong, it’s about American privacy versus totalitarian tracking.
This week, you may have noticed that Google, Wikipedia, Wired.com, and a variety of organizations went dark, blocking access to their website’s information in protest.
Whether you noticed or not — and the frightening part is that our Congress’ intention is generally to *not* be noticed — our elected officials in both the Senate and the House of Representatives were trying to censor the Internet, whether out of malice or incompetence.
Each group has a bill: the Senate had PIPA and the House had SOPA. The guise was that piracy and the stealing of copyrighted material (specifically movies and music) is so rampant that the government needs the ability to shut down websites and change the actual structure of the Internet “in case” they find an offender.
I could go on why it’s a bad idea but many others have; here’s the best, at Wired: http://bit.ly/w0QT76
For now, it’s been postponed: http://bbc.in/AfLBS1
You should not be overly relieved. The fact is that in America — the land of the Free, home of the Brave — Congress almost passed a broad, Big Brother-esque censorship bill that would have given the Federal Government the same powers of censorship that our military fights *against* in the Middle East and what our government officials say is wrong in China.
I lived through censorship and it is not blatant, it is not obvious, and it effects you in subtle ways. That’s what makes it terrifying. Not that they’re watching me now, but that they could be watching me at any time.
That the new “friend” I meet could actually be a government party operative, checking to make sure that what I say isn’t too critical of the government. When I lived in China, he introduced himself as “Philip.”
I never knew when Facebook or the New York Times would be cut off so there was always the uncomfortable feeling that my Internet connection (and email) was being checked all the time. And it was.
Tell Congress that we don’t want to be like China.
Please write to Congress (http://bit.ly/yt9xOq) and sign this petition (http://bit.ly/wrcTbC) to tell our politicians “NO” to anti-American censorship.
Great piece! This is really well-put. I say ‘NOPA’ to ‘SOPA’!
You’re hitting the nail on the head,,,