Technological Tyranny

Technological Tyranny, worse than Orwell imagined

The Internet has ushered in technological tyranny, where like an Orwellian Big Brother, it hears, sees, everything we do and it can even reach out and strangle us. Our communication is dominated by the tech industries, who hold themselves out as protectors of the free world by running an Internet Blacklist Database. Known as the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT), this database's official purpose is prevent the proliferation of information through their platforms of what they deem to be “terrorist and violent extremist exploitation”. The four founding members of Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and Youtube are vying to get other internet companies to sign on, with them and their affiliate properties. Independently owned AirBnB, Amazon, Discord, Wordpress, Mailchimp and Tumblr have already joined their ranks in this censorship endeavor. The companies involved in the this technological tyranny do so by covering all aspects of modern communications. From the obvious social media, and messaging platforms, to photo sharing, cloud storage, interactive video games, advertising and even emerging AI communication technologies like DeepThink (Alphabet) and Nuance (Microsoft).

Technological tyranny is enforced by a collective that monitors our activities

All members of the GIFCT form a Big Brother collective, sharing information concerning activities on their respective platforms that may be considered in support of terrorism or violent extremism. Where the danger for regular folk exists, is in the label violent extremist, an easily adopted moniker that can be thrown around by anyone who's authority is being challenged. We may have a recent example of this in the Trucker's convoy. Whether or not the Trucker's demands represented the desires of the placid, obedient, and over 80% vaccinated Canadian citizens, or that they were a fringe group of hateful extremists as Canadian Leader Justin Trudeau called them, remains to be seen. What we need to take away from this is that Trudeau was able to not only keep them from receiving support from GoFundMe, but he also froze back accounts, and even traced Bitcoin transactions, of both the Trucker's and anyone who supported them. If it weren't for the present day technological tyranny, much of this information would not have been accessible to the Canadian government.

Because the rules of GIFCT include anyone facilitating or making a financial contribution to any terrorist or extremist organization; everyone who so much as voiced their support has opened themselves up to scrutiny and possible future consequences. We must understand that this technological tyranny means if the powers that be don't get what they want, the voices of dissension can now suffer more life disrupting ramifications, like having their money made inaccessible, because of the inter-connectivity of the tech giant subsidiary assets.

The plight of the end-user who sees his comments disappear, his account suspended or a complete ban from a platform, has often fallen on death ears, as other users “flag” content which is competitive to them or supports an opposing opinion. This juvenile squabbling, where little brother tattles to Big brother on his middle siblings, is not just an inconvenience of trying to plead one's case to the administration of the relative platform. User reporting is, in fact, a primary mechanism used by GIFCT to hunt down offensive material. We have seen this played out in an ever increasing political divide between the Dems and Republicans. The technological tyranny clearly does not favor President Donald Trump and even banned him entirely last year from Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. What's more, alternative platforms are quickly swallowed up, bought out, or as with Parler, made unavailable by blocking the app. Parler and it's users were identified as Trump supporters, so both Apple and Android removed it's app from their stores. Google Play Store, which deals in all the Android apps, is a subsidiary of Google, as is and founding member of GIFCT YouTube.

The technology bully

These techies have long treated traditional business models with disdain, and have drilled an “adapt or die” mantra into the minds of everyone reluctant to move away from in person transactions to third party dependency. But the recent global quarantine, was for most who still held out, the proverbial nail in the coffin. With so many housebound, for so long, this adaptation was forced upon every industry. Restaurants and groceries are delivered, doctors and therapists are virtual, and all commerce and advertising goes through the internet or it goes out of business. Technological tyranny, it seems, is like a school yard bully, picking on those who don't step in line and ensuring himself a piece of the action from everyone who does succumb to his tactics. This not only means a significant drop in face to face exchanges, but the liberty-guaranteeing use of cash is falling by the wayside.

When we don't use cash, every transaction is traceable. Those behind the technological tyranny use this information to profile us for further advertising, but it can also be used to connect you with organizations, which may one day fall out of favor with the establishment. Worse for most of us, is the fact that third party transactions means someone else handles our money and they may not always be willing to pass it along. Paypal is infamous for seizing funds, and freezing accounts. There is also a long history of adult performers, seeing money earned on camming sites disappear, before they get transferred into their respective accounts. Not to mention that a cashless society relies heavily on credit cards and the credit card processing is subject to all sorts of hold-backs on funds. Take Square for instance, (run by Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter), in their terms of service they state, “We may require a Reserve for any reason related to your use of the Services. The Reserve will be in an amount as reasonably determined by us to cover potential losses to Square. The Reserve may be raised, reduced or removed at any time by Square, in its soul discretion.” This loosely defined access to your funds (both from sales revenues and in your linked bank account) is becoming standard operation for these third-party processors, and is exceptionally scary when you consider that the TOS also give Square the right to keep any funds in their favor from processing errors that go undisputed for 30 days.

We have to think of these tech giants not as some altruistic organization for the betterment of humanity, but self-serving entities capable of attacking anyone whose internet activity does not fall in line with the desired behaviors. Don't kid yourself, while this may not yet be fully unleashed, it's naive to believe that it never will be. The billionaires in charge of these mega corporations do not have our best interest. History has shown that the rich and powerful will do whatever they can get away with to keep their profits rising. We have become way too reliant on technological middlemen, who can literally direct our business by controlling the access that others have to our content and/ or advertising. And with the platforms that distribute our content and / or process our payments, we have the added worry of having our funds seized. Anyone who refuses to acknowledge the risks of these two realities shouldn't be surprised when one day the technological tyranny disrupts their personal or professional livelihood. Don't believe me? Then I challenge you to get through a day, a week, or even a month without utilizing any product of Facebook (META),Google (Alphabet), Microsoft, or twitter (Block).

- Hamilton Steele : pornstar, pornographer and sex industry worker since the 1990s.