I believe the average citizens have duly noted that they are potentially under surveillance, and are thus self-censoring to some extent. They may view it as uncomfortable and a bit chilling, but by and large a small price to pay for the possibility to catch terrorists, preferably before the act.
I believe this will be status quo until it becomes increasingly obvious that "terrorists" are gradually coming to include normal political opponents and that these tools are being used by oligarchical forces to suppress democracy itself. It hasn't happened yet, but we're getting close.
It's interesting because people (quite rightly) speak fearfully of the Chinese social credit system.
Over here in the US, we seem to be accidentally building something that is somewhat similar, but far more haphazard and inconsistent: online outrage mobs. I'd wager more people are self-censoring due to these than anything the US government has put into place.
Comments
I believe the average citizens have duly noted that they are potentially under surveillance, and are thus self-censoring to some extent. They may view it as uncomfortable and a bit chilling, but by and large a small price to pay for the possibility to catch terrorists, preferably before the act.
I believe this will be status quo until it becomes increasingly obvious that "terrorists" are gradually coming to include normal political opponents and that these tools are being used by oligarchical forces to suppress democracy itself. It hasn't happened yet, but we're getting close.
It's interesting because people (quite rightly) speak fearfully of the Chinese social credit system.
Over here in the US, we seem to be accidentally building something that is somewhat similar, but far more haphazard and inconsistent: online outrage mobs. I'd wager more people are self-censoring due to these than anything the US government has put into place.
There is evidence for this as well: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mgbg7p/nsa-chilling-effec...
People have changed what they search for since the Snowden whistleblowing.