Introduction: Just When You Think It Couldn't Be Worse...
Back in July (Read.cash version), I noted how it is very dangerous when big tech social media remove posts or suspend accounts at the government's behest. Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai sued Twitter and the State of Massachusetts in May 2021 for their coordination to censor public opinion on the 2020 election. In his supplemental memorandum, he revealed how the government and Twitter Legal collaborated to form the Twitter Trusted Partnership and Twitter Partner Support (PSP) Portal. The government can issue an order to Twitter via the portal to remove content at its behest.
In a separate case, lawyer Rogan O'Handley sued Twitter along with certain Californian officials after he got permanently suspended for questioning how the 2020 election was conducted. Emails from a FOIA request revealed that then California Secretary of State Alex Padilla coordinated with Twitter to suspend users critical of his job performance.
In August I wrote about Google Jigsaw's "Hate Clusters" article and criticized its rather broad interpretation for what constitutes as "hate content". Google even went as far as to cite the FBI's definition and somehow, managed to stretch it to the point that its and the FBI's definitions were not the same.
And well... Google has managed to be in the spotlight again though it's not alone. Its accomplice or rather, its string-puller? Good ol' Big Brother government. What are they up to this time? Looking up what you have searched on Google courtesy of "keyboard warrants".
The "Keyboard Warrant"
On October 4, Forbes published an article discussing about how the US government has been asking Google to provide information of people who searched certain terms on the search engine. Federal investigators used the "keyboard warrant" during a 2019 case in Wisconsin where a minor was a victim of trafficking and sexual assault. The government asked "the tech giant to provide information on anyone who had searched for the victim’s name, two spellings of her mother’s name and her address over 16 days across the year", including Google accounts and IP addresses.
The ominous part was that we are not supposed to know this. The only reason why this information is out in the public is because the Justice Department accidentally unsealed the warrant last month. While Google claims it has a "rigorous process that is designed to protect the privacy of [its] users while supporting the important work of law enforcement", there's a debate on whether this practice is ethical and legal. Unlike conventional warrants which targets specific locations and people, "keyboard warrants" are incredibly broad. Such general searches is likely in violation of the Fourth Amendment, particularly these parts:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Discovery of this once secret warrant also reinforced concerns over freedom of speech. Privacy advocates are worried that Google will hand information of people who searched the "incorrect" terms to the government and have those people incarcerated for wrongthink. Jennifer Granick, surveillance and cybersecurity counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said the following regarding this issue:
Trawling through Google’s search history database enables police to identify people merely based on what they might have been thinking about, for whatever reason, at some point in the past. This is a virtual dragnet through the public’s interests, beliefs, opinions, values and friendships, akin to mind reading powered by the Google time machine. This never-before-possible technique threatens First Amendment interests and will inevitably sweep up innocent people, especially if the keyword terms are not unique and the time frame not precise. To make matters worse, police are currently doing this in secret, which insulates the practice from public debate and regulation.
And the worst part is this is far from the first time the government is strong-arming Big Tech to do surveillance dirty work. The government also issued three "keyboard warrants" for the investigation into serial Austin bombings in 2018. The scope of those warrants were the same, only that it not only applied to Google, but also Microsoft Bing and Yahoo.
Closing Thoughts
Imagine a society where all the Big Tech corporations not only remove your posts or suspend your account (while selling your personal data to ad companies), but also tag you for wrongthink and hand you over to an authoritarian government. I'm not saying we are at that point, but it is hard to deny that we are closer to that destination than we were 20, 10, or even 5 years ago.
And with the recent Facebook debacle and users' data stolen by hackers (I highly recommend reading aceontop's article), these two events should be convincing you to hop off Big Tech. More than ever do we need decentralized web apps and privacy-focused search engines that can keep censorship and government overreach at bay.
If you have been following me for a while, I have frequently harped on about Presearch (referral) and its importance. There are many other search engines not situated in the US like Metager, Qwant, and SearX. Brave Search does not collect data and is in the process of going fully independent. As for social media, there are a plethora of options available. There are Minds, Bastyon (formerly Pocketnet, referral), and the many platforms on the Hive blockchain like PeakD. Heck, maybe even try Linux out to avoid the telemetry from Windows (I've heard it's been getting more and more users).
Yes, you may be merely a drop in an ocean and the Big Tech corporations have amounts of money you will never have. However, by uncoupling yourself from their services, they lose power.
I generally support social media websites having content policies which delete misinformation and hate speech. Tech giants should probably be broken up.
Police using our private data is less justifiable to me.