Persuasive Essay On Government Surveillance

1893 Words8 Pages
Surveillance is the act of watching someone closely mainly to prevent crimes. While may be used to stop a terrorist attack beforehand, government surveillance has ethical issues as it is not always used in the right context. It is the antithesis of every nation’s constitution, which promotes freedom of privacy. Furthermore, it directly violates citizens’ rights and freedom of speech, and is used to retaliate against political enemies of the government using imprisonment or other sanctions. Government surveillance can have adverse effects on anyone’s life as it can be used to harm an individual’s reputation by exposing their personal information. In the digital age, terrorist’s use of the internet has increased to such an extent that all their communication and daily transactions occur on the internet. Keeping a close watch of the internet is almost necessary to prevent an unforeseen circumstance and to limit the approach of terrorist organizations around the world. The internet serves as the main source for recruits, funding and information, so limiting their access to the internet can prove effective in countering terrorists. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the question if government surveillance is necessary to counter terrorism. To do this, first techniques employed by the government for surveillance will be delineated. After that, the ways terrorists use the internet to spread their messages and agenda will be described. Then to present an alternative point