For Free Speech to Thrive Online, P2P Must Be Embraced

 

The most important lesson 2021 has taught us so far this year is that private companies are under no obligation to protect your freedom of speech.

While the Internet has created amazing ways for us to all communicate through social media, the fact of the matter is that people become too invested in platforms which are under someone else's control. For years we've seen increased cases of big tech showing bias towards political parties. This has all finally come to a head with the deplatforming of President Trump and even the suspension of hosting of Parler by Amazon because Parler refused to moderate content.

Currently this "big tech" bias seems to be against conservatives. However, liberals should be just as concerned about the consequences - if a conservative owned company gained popularity then suddenly started removing liberal content, liberals would and should be just as outraged.

Contact Tracing Privacy Concerns and You

While many are challenging that mandatory stay-at-home orders which have been enacted in many states across the United States are unconstitutional and a violation of our right to assemble, an often overlooked issue is how "contact tracing", tracing who has been in contact with someone infected with COVID-19, is threatening our privacy.

Before diving into the privacy concerns with contact tracing, I'd like to take a moment to say that COVID-19 is absolutely a serious health issue which should not be ignored. People should take reasonable precautions to reduce the chance of infection. Personally, I've been wearing a respirator mask in public since the beginning, as well as frequently using hand sanitizer. I'm not downplaying how serious this situation is. However, I do have concerns that through all this we're losing our ability to freely travel, we're losing many small businesses which have been the lifeblood of our communities for decades, and we're losing our privacy. At some point a line must be drawn, and people must say "enough".

The fact of the matter is, just like with identity theft, you can only reduce the risk, you can't eliminate it. Between social distancing, masks, and frequent hand washing, we've already greatly reduced the risk of spreading infection at a rate which our healthcare system can't handle.