Reader response draft 1

According to Morozov (2015) in “Who’s the true enemy of internet freedom-China, Russia, or the US?”, the US should be given the same amount of criticism, if not more, Russia and China have received over the issue of internet privacy. He reasons that by claiming Russia and China are only accessing data from their own people while the US is trying to access data by anybody anywhere as long as these data pass through US companies. His conclusion is that Russia and China are executing strict censorship not only to curb public disorder, but more importantly, to protect themselves against US’s assertive technological policies. It is refreshing to see that the US is not being portrayed as the spokesperson for “internet freedom” but Morozov’s article has painted Russia and China in an undeserving positive image.

It is true that the US is stepping over the line with their surveillance programs. They have always been the advocates for freedom and privacy but instead, are doing the opposite. They even have the Fourth Amendment to prevent government intrusion into their citizens’ privacy. It is scary to find out that the government plans to hide these schemes from the public if not for whistle-blowers. If they are truly law-abiding, they will need no reason to hide these programs. The National Security Agency has been keeping track of every forms of communication data from US citizens with the excuse of preventing terrorist attacks. After Edward Snowden’s disclosure of US’s global and domestic surveillance programs, it is embarrassing for the US to criticize other countries now for their so-called “internet freedom”.

However, it is naïve for Morozov to think that Russia and China are only trying to gather information within their territories. It is absolutely not astonishing to find out that almost all countries do secret surveillance of other countries, if they have the technology for it. China has been bombarded with complaint due to cyberattacks by Chinese hackers and the suspicion that these hackers are state-sponsored. Even though the Chinese government has denied involvement, this may be because no leakers have exposed them yet. This is a similar scenario like the US. The US government has tried to repudiate accusations of infringing on the rights of nations and individuals until they were proven to be guilty.

Morozov gave me the impression that he believes the quest for digital sovereignty by China and Russia is mostly to “de-Americanize” rather than to clamp down on internal unrests and unhappiness. Actually, the latter is a more important goal than the former. Take China as an example again, they have already started to “de-Americanize” by creating their own alternatives to most of the communication technologies created by the US. If they only want to stop the US from using their citizens’ data without permission, they would have stop there. Having a whole domestic sphere of communication platforms make it easier for them to carry out censorship too. However, the Chinese government still chooses to focus more on censorship within the Chinese media than pushing the US communication companies out. This shows that for Russia and China, domestic affairs are more critical factors behind their digital sovereignty compared to US’s aggressive surveillance.

In general, this article was a great read to help me get in perspective the various powers’ situation in the struggle for digital power.

(557 words)

Reference:

Morozov, E. (2015, January 4). Who’s the true enemy of Internet freedom- China, Russia or the US. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/04/internet-freedom-china-russia-us-google-microsoft-digital-sovereignty