This is not surprising. I think most relatively social media savvy people have just assumed that using some words and phrases would put one on the government’s radar. It seems a natural progression. As we live more and more of our lives online it is natural that the law “enforcers” would follow humanity into cyberspace.
Last summer the riots in England, reportedly spread via social media (not really Twitter or Facebook at least originally, but a proprietary program of Blackberry’s) put the powers that be on high alert. The “Arab Spring” had before the English riots, but that was in the developing world.
However, though most of us know the government is trolling through blogs and profiles it’s still another thing to see it right there in front of you, to see an actual list of words the government does not care for.
What is particularly concerning to me is the emergence of the surveillance state as an adjunct to the welfare and warfare state. Surveillance is a booming industry, one which government fosters with billions and billions of dollars. I need only drive 25 miles up the road to see it in its full glory, right along the Dulles corridor in Northern Virginia. Names of contractors large and small are emblazoned on midrise office buildings everywhere.
But I am told that it is in the midrises with no name on the outside where the real interesting stuff goes on. How much taxpayer money goes to these companies? We really don’t know.
It concerns me where we are going with all this as a society. Where does it stop? So long as there is big pot of government money to pull from it is unlikely that it ever will. Think about that.
National security is vitally important. There are people who want to do bad things to this country. But if we turn the United States into a de facto police state, what is it exactly that we are defending?
Below, the list.
