George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four portrayed a fictional character named ‘Big Brother,’ whom acted as the enigmatic dictator in a totalitarian state (Orwell, 1949). In the society where every citizen is under the surveillance of ‘Big Brother,’ most conform to the rulings and orders of the authorities out of fear, with the exception of a few.
In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, a former United States military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation, instigated a national political controversy when he released the top-secret Pentagon Papers to The New York Times (Bean, 2014). These papers exposed presidential deception about the Vietnam War by revealing that the U.S. had secretly enlarged the scale (Bean, 2014). In 2010, Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning, a U.S. army soldier leaked the largest set of classified documents in history to WikiLeaks (Bean, 2014). The information consisted of substantial archive of confidential government documents and the U.S. government has revealed that it was in the hands of Osama bin Laden (Bean, 2014). Even with the amount of information disclosed by these so called ‘whistleblowers,’ no official investigations into alleged war crimes or government misconduct has been issued (Bean, 2014). Both Ellsberg and Manning however, were charged with the Espionage Act of delivering factual information to American citizens. Ellsberg claimed, “The public is lied to every day by the president, by his spokespeople, by his officers. If you can't handle the thought that the president lies to the public for all kinds of reasons, you couldn't stay at that government at that level, where you're made aware of it, a week.” (Kreisler, personal communication, 1998). The privacy and civil rights abuses along with fear of...
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...Looms Over the Patriot Act”, The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/20/us/politics/20patriot.html?ref=usapatriotact&_r=1&
TedTalks. (March 18, 2014). Edward Snowden: Here's how we take back the Internet [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVwAodrjZMY
TedTalks. (March 20, 2014). Richard Ledgett: The NSA responds to Edward Snowden's TED Talk [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLNXIXingyU
Pew Research Center. (June 17, 2013). “Public Split over Impact of NSA Leak, But Most Want Snowden Prosecuted [Data Set]. Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/6-17-13%20NSA%20release.pdf
Pew Research Center. (January 20, 2014). “Obama’s NSA Speech has Little Impact on Skeptical Public” [Data Set]. Retrieved from http://www.people-press.org/files/legacy-pdf/1-20-14%20NSA%20Release.pdf
Is the American government trustworthy? Edward Joseph Snowden (2013) released to the United States press* selected information about the surveillance of ordinary citizens by the U.S.A.’s National Security Agency (N.S.A.), and its interconnection to phone and social media companies. The motion picture Citizenfour (2014), shows the original taping of those revelations. Snowden said that some people do nothing about this tracking because they have nothing to hide. He claims that this inverts the model of responsibility. He believes that everyone should encrypt Internet messages and abandon electronic media companies that track personal information and Internet behavior (op.cit, 2014). Snowden also stressed to Lawrence Lessig (2014) the importance of the press and the first amendment (Lessig – Snowden Interview Transcript, [16:28]). These dynamics illustrate Lessig’s (2006) constrain-enable pattern of powers that keep society in check (2006, Code: Version 2.0, p. 122). Consider Lessig’s (2006) question what is “the threat to liberty?” (2006, p. 120). Terrorism is a real threat (Weber, 2013). Surveillance by social media and websites, rather than the government, has the greater negative impact on its users.
James Stacey Taylor's article, "In Praise of Big Brother: Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love Government Surveillance" begins reviewing the concept of "Big Brother" as it was originally presented in George Orwell's 1984. The Big Brother started off as a fictional character in 1984-- a dictator of Oceania within a totalitarian state. Set within a society in which everyone is under complete surveillance by the authorities, mainly by telescreens, the people are constantly reminded of this by the phrase “Big Brother is watching you” (Wikipedia) . Taylor goes on to explain some examples of recent surveillance technology and how it is applied in lives today. An interesting note and comparison between today’s technology and that of the telescreens in 1984, is that people could be sure that they could not be watched by Big Brother’s telescreens by going out of the cities into the country, where they only had to take care that their conversations were not monitored by hidden microphones (Taylor 227). He contrasts the two, highlighting the fact that “Such an escape is not impossible, for spy satellites can be used to monitor people wherever they go” (277). From there, Taylor perpetuates the framework for his position on the Big Brother notion. Taylor argues that, "rather than opposing such an expansion of surveillance technology, its use should be encouraged -- and not only in the public realm" (227). Taylor’s argument presented in a more formal construction is as follows:
Edward Snowden, former CIA employee and contractor for the NSA, revealed last year the secret NSA surveillance programs that were used to monitor the United States and foreign countries for terrorists. In May 2013, he met with journalists Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras and disclosed countless NSA files, that were then published. The files contained information on several secret surveillance programs, as well as other not yet published files. Snowden has fled to other countries for asylum, since the United States government has charged him with espionage and theft of government property. A charge that was expected, as he he predicted that they would "say I have broken the Espionage Act and helped our enemies, but that can be used against anyone who points out how ma...
"The Triumph of Technique – The Logic of the NSA." LibrarianShipwreck. WordPress.com, 22 June 2013. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
In early June 2013, Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former defense contractor who had access to NSA database while working for an intelligence consulting company, leaked classified documents reports that the National Security Agency (NSA) is recording phone calls of millions of Americans along with gathering private data and spying foreign Internet activity. The Washington Post later broke the news disclosed PRISM, a program can collect data on Internet users. The leaked documents publicly stated a vast objection. Many people were shocked by the scale of the programs, even elected representatives were unaware of the surveillance range. A nationwide debate over privacy rights have been sparked. Although supporters claim that the NSA only does its best to protect the United States from terrorists as well as respecting Americans' rights and privacy, many civil rights advocates feel that the government failed to be clear about the limit of the surveillance programs, threatening Americans' civil...
"Going soft on the NSA." Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) 25 May 2006: Newspaper Source. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.
Edward Snowden. This is a name that will be in the history books for ages. He will be branded a traitor or a whistleblower depending on where you look. Many Americans feel that Edward Snowden is a traitor who sold the United States’ secrets aiming to harm the nation. Others believe that he was simply a citizen of the United States who exercised his right to expose the government for their unconstitutional actions. It is important to not only know the two sides to the argument of friend or foe, but to also know the facts as well. My goal in this paper is to present the facts without bias and to adequately portray the two sides of the argument.
During his presentation, Ethan asked the class whether we would be comfortable with the government watching all of our internet usage. When the class responded with a resounding “no”, Ethan explained that Snowden was attempting to make the government’s spying visible, as the public needed to know. This made his presentation effective as it made Snowden’s actions feel personal, consequently appealing to pathos.
Joseph Stalin, born Josef Vissarionovich Djugashvili, was a totalitarian ruler of the Soviet Union from the 1920’s until his death in 1953. Stalin started his rise to power as General Secretary of the Communist Party. After the death of dictator Vladimir Lenin, he became the Soviet dictator. Stalin’s reign of terror, lasting over two decades, included thorough surveillance brainwashing of his countrymen which resulted in the deaths of millions of people. Just as Stalin left his mark as a totalitarian menace, so did Big Brother in George Orwell’s dystopian world of Oceania in his novel 1984. Stalin and Big Brother instilled fear upon their conglomerates by means of surveillance, propaganda, media control, sovereignty, and murder in order to remain in complete control of their countries. The two dictators had one focal, barbaric idea in common: the ability to access and control
Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the extent of the N.S.A breaches of American privacy and in doing so, became ostracized by the media and barred from freely reentering America, his home country.
To be more specific, the most Americans, 56 percent, believe that the federal courts have failed to establish an adequate framework on how much personal information the government is allowed to collect using the Internet and telephone lines (Epstein). In turn, 70 percent of respondents are convinced that the governmental organizations use the gathered information not only for fighting with and preventing terrorism but also for controlling own citizens. The 50 percent of the US citizens support the overall monitoring program, along with the National Security Agency. More than half of Americans expressed the opinion that the actions of Edward Snowden was a crime and should be brought to justice. However, there is 38 percent of respondents who believe in the innocence of Snowden saying that a criminal case against him should not be
Security is a vital asset for the advancement and stability of any country. Today exists a world where protection and security are getting progressively more necessary for the strength of a nation. It is believed the advances of technology allow boundless possibilities of protection, which has kept the United States safe for several years. With the media becoming more prevalent in today’s society, we as citizens know much more about threats to our nation than we had in previous years. A prime example of this knowledge is fairly due to a man named Edward Snowden. Snowden is a former National Security Agency (NSA) member who made headlines
In May 2013, Edward Snowden, a consultant working for the National Security Agency, began copying documents on the agency’s domestic surveillance practices, which included spying on millions of American citizens. One program was called PRISM. Snowden supplied those secret documents to news outlets, and the following month the Guardian and the Washington Times released Snowden's published information on the NSA program that allowed real-time information collection on American citizens. A flood of information followed, and the US Government and the American people demanded to either hear more about it or have Snowden arrested.1
WikiLeaks has changed the way governments operate. Due to the release of all these high profile documents, both the American people and people in other countries expect their governments’ to show a higher level of transparency. In this age where anything can be posted online or released to the press, whistleblowing has become much more common. This can be attributed to the effect WikiLeaks had on both the American and world society.