Push back against censorship with Infosec
That’s right InfoSec. It sounds like its straight out of the pages of 1984. Just another Ingsoc slogan blasted over the loudspeakers by Oceania, on banners plastered to the side of the Ministry of Truth. There’s been a disturbing trend rippling through the online community. A digital purge. Laci Green said it best - 'it feels like social media is being scrubbed for thought crimes'. Somewhere George Orwell is spinning in his grave. Unlike Winston Smith us modern Proles have more options and our salvation will come from new emerging technologies. We can fight back against this oppressive censorship through Information Security.
Its more important then ever to protect our online information. For us to take ownership of our data, how we use these online services and even how to protect ourselves against them. Many content creators on some of the worlds most popular networks have been deplatformed with little or no recourse. Users that didn’t incite violence or hate, but simple voiced unpopular opinions. Some say so what. Others defend this censorship with anger because its people they genuinely feel should be deplatformed. I think that’s the same attitude that eventualy boiled the frog. We're already seeing the unintended consequences of it. Deplatforming people does not stop the conversation it simply disappears from public scrutiny. That’s dangerous, we use to say something about sticks and stones. Jimmy Dore is right, protection of the freedom of speech is not there to protect speech that we like its there to protect speech that we hate. The answer to hate speech is more conversation not less. So, I’ve put together a list of some tools I use to protect my information and my identity from these censorship abuses. My hope is that while reading this you take the time to consider what you can do to protect your online identity and give these options a try. We don’t have to suffer the same fate as Winston or the frog.
Brave Browser
You are not a product. Its splashed across their homepage and I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment. By default, Brave browser blocks ads & trackers from ever getting to your devices. Its amazing to think that on average just downloading things you've never asked for costs $276 a year in data charges ($362 for my Canadian brothers and sisters). Its faster and you'll instantly realize just how much you were being targeted by aggressive ad campaigns. They're gone. Brave also allows you to reward your favorite content producers via their blockchain-based token BAT. This is an optional feature and completely seamless. You can load your wallet with BAT tokens that get distributed to content creators based on how much you view their content. Help your favorite creators earn while you surf. I can’t recommend making this your browser default enough. This one change will take your InfoSec to a whole new level.
2FA - Two-factor Authentication
In general, this is a precaution that all of us should be taking. I’ve advocated this to friends and family for a long time. We're living in a brave new world and we need to take security seriously. The basic concept is you install an app on your device (google authenticator is my favorite) and by syncing your device with a server you generate a number that can not be forged. You enter this number when you sign in to services like Facebook, Gmail, Twitter - without that code no ones getting into your accounts.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-factor_authentication
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.authenticator2&hl=en_CA
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/google-authenticator/id388497605?mt=8
TunnelBear
TunnelBear is a secure VPN service. Its excellent and independently audited. Available on all your devices. We've all had that annoying experience where content isn’t available in our area. A secure VPN gets around that. Unless you have some experience with online gaming, IPTV or wanting American Netflix chances are you haven’t found the need before now, depending on where you live. But that’s changing. Secure VPNs are needed in countries like China, Iran, Venezuela or Turkey where its common place for the government to shutdown services we take for granted in the west (there’s no Google in China - just think about that). Remember those amazing videos from the Arab spring, well they only got to us because of services like this. Twitter and Facebook were shut down immediately region wide. Unfortunately, what we're starting to see here in the west is oppressive censorship of the internet exactly like the abuses we see elsewhere in the world. You don’t want to need it and not have it.
ProtonMail is a free encrypted email service. End-to-end encryption by default between all users of the service and I encourage you all to sign up. Its not just email, its protection. No one is mining your communications for advertising data. Its open source software which means its been gone over with a fine-tooth comb by an army of geeks. The user interface is exactly what you've come to expect from email. There’s no corporate silos secretly tracking your information and selling it to the highest bidder. I’ve switched all my important services to use ProtonMail. My old email accounts are used for what they've become, mainly spam collectors.
Password Management
Its such a boring topic but its importance can not be overstated. Our passwords give us access to our online financial services, personal media accounts, everything, and most of us use one password for them all. Its probably our weakest point when it comes to security. The worst thing you can do in my opinion is use the Facebooks sign in options. I’ve seen countless examples of Facebook revoking access to users with no explanation. With that single stroke they lose access to most of their online life if they were unfortunate enough to trust they would be given due process. Facebook recently suffered the largest single day loss in stock valuation in US corporate history and they are purging anyone they see as threatening their bottom line. LastPass can generate a unique password for each online account you use. Those passwords are encrypted and stored. Access can be setup using two factor authentication making it very secure. It has extensions for all the top browsers including Brave. This is a service I’ve recommended to friends and family for years and should be top on your list to give a try.
Search Engines
Google has become so prevalent most people don’t realize that its just an indexed search engine. The internet exists outside of Google, in fact its not even required at all. But it is an extremely useful tool. I remember the first days of the internet and randomly typing in addresses into the address bar. I marvelled at the expanse of the internet even in those early days. It opened an amazing world of knowledge, possibilities, and brought the entire world closer together in many ways. Google deserves a lot of credit for that, but things have changed. The internet has become a much smaller curated space. They've monetized your private intimate information and are making a fortune off it. The things you search, the things we search in groups, the sites we visit and questions we ask, the IP addresses we visit from, even our geolocation on the planet - all are tracked, organized and sold to the highest bidder. Any business taking profit is not inheritably a problem. But tailored results are. Search results are tailored to a user while signed in. Tailored to a region. Tailored to pressure from advertisers, political parties and special interest groups. Many results are simply hidden. Tailored is just another word for censorship. It doesn’t just influence what we see, it influences how we think.
Tools can be replaced and luckily there are some excellent options available to us. StartPage bills itself as the most private search engine in the world. They block targeted ads by default. Track none of your personal information, and the results are Googles they just add a layer of security automatically for you. Privacy is a human right and they've staked their reputation on that. DuckDuckGo' moto is - friends don’t let friends get tracked. DuckDuckGo also uses Google, essentially you are getting the same results they're just free of bias and unfiltered. Its amazing what you find when the entire internet is not curated for you. They block Googles hidden trackers by default, and they are everywhere. Its estimated 75% of all websites on the internet have google trackers of one kind or the other. I’ve linked to a couple great articles about DuckDuckGo below, their philosophy on revenue and why you should make the switch. I’ve set DuckDuckGo to be my search engine of choice by default when I use Brave.
https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-revenue-generation-model-for-DuckDuckGo/answer/Gabriel-Weinberg
https://www.quora.com/Why-should-I-use-DuckDuckGo-instead-of-Google
Social Media Networks and a way forward
Social media networks are used by billions of users daily. Their ability to connect us and bring us together on a global scale is truly astounding. More then any other medium they've truly begun our transformation into a global population. We can share our lives with friends and family, interact with strangers, share video and live streams, consume news and ideas. These platforms are transformative in nature and their effect on commerce and intellectual exchange are unparalleled in history. They have become the backbone of our modern human civilization. But they are dangerously concentrated. Next to Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, and they're owned by the same company. The potential for abuse is too great. It seems to me that we have handed over public discourse to a handful of corporations centralized in one tiny area of the world. They've monetized all our private data and all it takes to be deplatformed is threaten their bottom line. We're starting to see the side effects of that now and its getting scary. These are the digital town squares and marketplaces of our present and access to them needs to be considered a human right for all our futures.
Blockchain technologies are censorship resistant by nature. We've been using their precursors for years we just never had to think about these problems before in a digital context. Napster, LimeWire, BitTorrent chances are anyone born after 1980 have used at least one of these programs. They are built on peer to peer technologies. No need for a central authority to control or grant access. Blockchain is the natural evolution of these technologies. Each one of us using the network strengthens it. We become a resource instead of a drain. Each node helps secure and support the network. Its a technology for the people and it will unleash us like never before.
Minds
Minds has just finished its migration to the Ethereum blockchain. Its an interesting mix of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogging sites rolled into one. You can promote your own content, stay in touch with your friends through status updates, share pictures and video, or write a blog. You can even setup paywalls for private content to users who want to subscribe. No fees, no middlemen. And best of all there are no ads! Other users on the platform can send you money just for enjoying your content. Its maturing very quickly and I’m excited for where it could go. You should read the whitepaper and get a vision for what they are trying to achieve.
https://www.minds.com/shawnrmoss
Steemit
Steemit is most easily described as a blogging platform, but its much more then that. What they've attempted to create is a living, breathing, and growing social economy. Users are rewarded for sharing their voice. Steemit is powered by the Steem blockchain and the STEEM cryptocurrency. Everyday the Steem blockchain creates new tokens and awards them to users for their contributions to the network. These tokens are rewards based on votes their content receive from other users. For you none geeks out there don’t worry its all seamless. Accounts are free but there is a wait unless you are willing to pay. When I set up my account it cost around $3.87 USD. You can just imagine what that does for bot accounts you see on other platforms. There are none.
https://steemit.com/shawnrmoss
Streaming Video
DTube and Bitchute are video streaming platforms built using these same technologies. DTube like Steemit uses the Steem blockchain to read and write content to an immutable digital ledger. That’s part of their power and the source of their censorship resistance. Bitchute differs from DTube in that it relies heavily on peer-to-peer technologies to deliver content at true zero marginal cost. If you’re a content creator looking to make an impact you can not ignore these platforms. Many of the personalities being purged from YouTube have made their way here and many established content creators have begun posting exclusive content having seen the writing on the wall. Again, no ads!
Take action
Vote with your dollars but just as importantly vote with your content. I’ve started using these platforms as replacements to the legacy social media sites I currently use. I personally cancelled all my premium paid services on every platform that engages in censorship. That's not premium to me and I will not support it. Fight back against the oppression we've been seeing in social media. Protect yourself and your information. I think its time to start talking about a Digital Bill of Rights immune from the mob mentality, special interest groups and abuses of centralized authority.
Access is a human right.