Why Is Internet Surveillance Important

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Internet Surveillance to Information Manipulation

When people hear the words “internet surveillance,” most seem to assume the worst possible scenario. Visions from the dystopian novel 1984, where George Orwell creates an allegorical reflection of the totalitarianism in Stalinist Russia immediately come to mind. By comparing the novel to internet surveillance today, it becomes clear that the benefits that could come from governmental internet surveillance are outweighed by the potential dangers; however in a virtual world that holds the keys to the lives of millions across not only the United States, but the whole planet, the opportunity to use surveillance to prevent terrorism, crime, and even bullying seems too hard to pass up. In order

In today’s world where “fake news” runs rampant and every tweet from the the President of the United States needs to be fact-checked, manipulation of the past seems eerily familiar. In the words of Winston, “when memory failed and written records were falsified...the claim of the [government] to have improved the conditions of human life had...to be accepted” (Orwell 93). With the claim that internet surveillance will improve society, whether through prevention of terrorism or hate speech, who is to say that this is not just an Orwellian manipulation of information to create the illusion of good? In reality, by monitoring the activities of people online, companies such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter are able to find what makes their sites addicting, and then correlate those factors with advertisements, and news releases. Former Silicon Valley tech executive Justin Rosenstein, has even blocked himself off completely from social media as he has discovered the addiction and dangerous information manipulation that it creates. From cookies to preference monitoring, there are many ways people are already being surveyed. The problem is that often people are unaware of the surveillance, or take little notice of it. In order for internet surveillance to be morally acceptable for any level of government, people need

On a local level, cyberbullying could be discovered among school children, and could be used to reach out to suicide-prone people in need of help. On a state level, surveillance could be used to find missing children and people, and finding keys to lowering crime rates in specific communities. On a federal level, wanted criminals could be tracked and potential shooters or terrorists could be discovered. Considering the amount of natural disasters that occured in 2017, internet surveillance could also be used to discover areas in need of help and rescue. In total, however, with the note of the Trump FCC in December of 2017 to dissolve net neutrality, internet manipulation is too large of a possibility. Despite the benefits governmental surveillance could possess, the laws that prevent invasion of privacy or manipulation simply do not exist. Perhaps if laws such as those were passed, than internet surveillance could be considered justified, however, considering the current situation of the United States, it currently is not. As of now, an Orwellian world seems a too close for comfort, and internet surveillance would only worsen the