Reader response draft 2

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 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. The US law has the Fourth Amendment with the goal to prevent government intrusion into their citizens’ privacy. However, it is apparently fine for the government to break this law as long as they do not get found out by the public. If they are truly law-abiding like they claimed to be, 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. As aptly summarized by Zetter (2014) about the negative effects of US techological policies, "in the name of security [against terrorist attacks], we’re trading away not only privacy, but also the U.S. tech economy, internet openness, America’s foreign policy interests and cybersecurity.” 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. Just recently, Chinese hackers are pin-pointed as the culprit behind the theft of personal information of at least 80 million customers of health-care company Anthem. Even though the Chinese government has denied involvement with these Chinese hackers, 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 wanted to stop the US from using their citizens’ data without permission, they would have stopped 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 rather than pushing the US communication companies out of their territory. This shows that for Russia and China, controlling domestic affairs is a more critical factor behind their digital sovereignty compared to protecting themselves against 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.

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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

Riley, M & Robertson,J. (2015, February 6) Chinese state-sponsored hackers suspected in Anthem Attack. Bloomberg. Retrieved from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-05/signs-of-china-sponsored-hackers-seen-in-anthem-attack

Stout, D (2015, February 5). China hackers may be responsible for the anthem attack, reports say. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/3698417/china-anthem-hack-healthcare/

Zetter, K (2014, July 29). Personal privacy is only one of the costs of NSA Surveillance. [web log post] Retrieved from http://www.wired.com/2014/07/the-big-costs-of-nsa-surveillance-that-no-ones-talking-about/