On erasing Palestinians. Or everybody else
Almost everywhere. surveillance and ensorship come from far away.
Rest of World recently published a long post about how Israel silences Palestinians on social media. Without taking sides, this post highlights two of the general digital issues in that story:
- “Documentation and testimonies of the violence [Palestinians] faced from Israeli settlers are shut down by tech companies far from Palestine": Palestinians (and Israeli too!) have less control over their own voices than Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok, among others
- “For some Palestinians, just being able to post on social media under their real names is a risk too dangerous to take”
But these are both things that could happen in a flash everywhere else (and already do, in many places, from here to here and here). Whatever you think about the Middle East situation, or about online anonymity, please never forget this.
Image source: Wikipedia entry on Palestinian territories
Who writes this, why, and how to help
I am Marco Fioretti, tech writer and aspiring polymath doing human-digital research and popularization.
I do it because YOUR civil rights and the quality of YOUR life depend every year more on how software is used AROUND you.
To this end, I have already shared more than a million words on this blog, without any paywall or user tracking, and am sharing the next million through a newsletter, also without any paywall.
The more direct support I get, the more I can continue to inform for free parents, teachers, decision makers, and everybody else who should know more stuff like this. You can support me with paid subscriptions to my newsletter, donations via PayPal (mfioretti@nexaima.net) or LiberaPay, or in any of the other ways listed here.THANKS for your support!