Nov 18 2023 Gabriel

Leaping at Shadows Calls to end anonymity on social media are not new, but every once in a while they return as tensions rise. These renewed calls will suggest more extreme measures against platforms that allow even mere pseudonymity, much less complete anonymity. These proposals aim to ensure that the cost of communication with others, or even the public will be privacy. The argument presumes that if everyone was forced to have everything recorded in their real name, then interactions online would always be more civil and productive.

Apr 13 2023 Gabriel

For tyrants and dissidents alike, the Covid Crisis was a defining moment in the history of censorship. Top-down information control leapt out of the shadows into an overt campaign of propaganda, suppression and manipulation. One of the defining aspects of the crisis is that it exemplified an arms race between those who want complete top-down control, and those who would dare to seek their own path. Despite the best efforts of Big Tech corporations, governments and NGOs, people who took a stand against creeping totalitarianism were able to meet, organize, and share information.

Jan 08 2023 Gabriel

“If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men. I will find something in them which will hang him” Cardinal Richelieu In a time where so much data about people is being constantly harvested in increasingly invasive ways, there is a lot of material to work with. As I’m sure we have all seen, there innumerable ways in which people’s own beliefs, mistakes or decisions land them in serious trouble.