A recent study on Facebook published in the periodical Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly shows how people are self-censoring in the wake of the Snowden revelations. Another study on Wikipedia in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal echoes the same hesitance to view and comment on content about sensitive issues like terrorism and Islam. Even government agencies are seeing the same chilling effect on online freedoms. We now know that the NSA is monitoring a lot of our online activities and communications, and we have been avoiding being linked to sources of information that contain monitored key words and phrases. The surveillance activities of the US government have discouraged us from exercising our rights to free access to information and the freedom of speech and association.
Facebook Users Fall Silent
Since Edward Snowden told the world about NSA surveillance on the Internet, particularly on social media sites such as Facebook, users have gone quiet. Before 2013, there was a proliferation of democratic discussion on the platform, with various users unafraid to share minority views. After the revelations, users became aware that the government was actively looking for anyone showing interest or getting involved in certain sensitive issues. Sudden and noticeable drops in user participation on such topics is evidence that people are worried about the government following their post views and taking notes on the political flavor of their comments. These people have shown great interest in talking about these issues but are now too afraid to pursue their curiosity and share their opinions. They are clinging to privacy to avoid being tagged by the NSA due to their online interactions on terrorism and other hot topics.
The Facebook study imitates this process to show how users will opt not to interact with posts on hot topics that they are told that the NSA is likely monitoring. The respondents of the study who answered that they were most likely to refrain from sharing an opposing view are those who are also in favor of government surveillance. Even if they see similar comments, they will keep silent rather than say something that they think most Americans would disagree with. This shows that they are trying to stay with the general flow, probably to make sure that they do not attract the attention of the NSA. Minority views are therefore stifled by government online surveillance programs, which in turn creates a false impression of greater support for majority views. For instance, we would get the impression that most Americans think that government surveillance is good, necessary to preserve national security, and that they support it because they are not hiding anything. In reality, this is what the NSA would like us all to believe, and anyone who seems to agree with them is not going to be made a surveillance target.
Feigned conformity doesn’t fool the NSA, however. They may pass such an individual over when scanning for new surveillance targets, but their primary goal isn’t to suss out detractors. The agency knows that these people are pretty good citizens. The agency is actually quite satisfied when they simply withhold their opposing views because they like the impression of consent that the silence creates.
Wikipedia Views Drop Drastically
The Wikipedia study follows basically the same pattern as the Facebook study, but looks at actual article views on the site rather than recreating a reaction scenario. Monthly traffic counting visits to Wikipedia articles on issues like terrorist groups and techniques for organizing terror attacks dropped by 30% after the news about the NSA’s PRISM surveillance program hit the presses. Wikipedia article traffic data shows that page views continued to drop throughout the last months of 2013 and until the present. The available Wikipedia data gives us a clear picture of the immediate self-censorship that netizens applied as soon as they learned that their interest in such topics was being tracked by the government. This poses a grave threat to democracy and society, as do the above reactions shown in the Facebook study.
The Wikipedia study took 48 articles in particular which were chosen for the inclusion of known NSA target key phrases like “dirty bomb,” “nuclear enrichment,” “eco-terrorism,” and “suicide attack”. These and similar keywords are monitored by the Department of Homeland Security and content containing them is analyzed and linked to people who have shown interest in it.
NTIA Records Drop in Internet Surfing
In the digital age as Internet access spreads and more activities are done online, we would not expect people to be surfing less than before. This is exactly what the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the Department of Commerce discovered, however. The NTIA conducted a survey among 41,000 households in the US and found that 20% of them are using the Internet less since NSA surveillance became public knowledge. The reason given was fear of being monitored and having their data scooped up by the government. These respondents no longer feel free in their own homes to search for information and discuss hot issues online. They no longer have faith that their right to privacy will be respected and so they elect to refrain from communicating and associating with others when it can get them in the NSA’s sights.
When people choose to remain silent where they would otherwise feel free to share information and ideas, something is stopping them. In this case, they are afraid of being put down on an NSA hot list that will encourage increased surveillance of their other online activities, and possibly their VoIP and phone communications as well. Government surveillance is unwelcome, and people are unduly sacrificing their rights just to stay under the radar. Their healthy enthusiasm for pursuing knowledge and broadening perspectives is dampened by the threat of being spied on. Their openness to other people and groups grows cold. This is very harmful to a robust democracy and to societal relations. Fear begets hatred, and this is one thing that we do not need more of in a world already besieged by terrors.
