DailyPost 1566
DIGITAL RULE OF LAW
To deprive anybody of his fundamental rights, governments and law enforcement agencies have to go through a process, strict adherence to law and approval from the appropriate authority. The approval is also conditional in nature in the sense that the perimeters are pretty well decided and anything above and beyond is clearly a misuse of law. Scores of officials have been penalised country after country. All these processes are the power of the state and but for the state nobody can take it from you. That happens only by the process established by law. Today, democratic history is being written by private companies. The digital East India Companies are taking control of the world.
The recent anti-trust Congressional hearings have made no impact. While the legal implications and proposed actions against Donald Trump is being debated, the rule of law prevails. That is the biggest guarantee to individual rights and sanity of the nation and its robustness for all times to come. Good and bad days would keep on repeating. Way beyond this rule of law, it is left to the judgement of one person or corporation to ban Trump out of social media for life. Does the govt has no role in deciding these matters? Has our individual freedom gone in control of IT Behemoths.
This is not the first time.
We have given them enough rope to hang all of us. It’s like the lollipop being provided to the kid, while the kid is busy licking it, his house is burgled. They make trillions of dollars out of data being generated out of incessant online activities. Finally we have beg them for our won information. Recently, Facebook refused to remove doctored Nancy Pelosi video. YouTube was profusely used during the ISIS macabre growth. We have had our own share of mob lynching. The Christchurch killing was relayed live on Facebook Live. If we cannot translate our physical rule to law to encompass the digital rule of law, we will be doomed.
They sit in judgement on the requests of the law enforcement agencies. This is where the law has been brought down to. In the physical world you will have search, seizure, warrants, arrest and what not. The legislatures globally and executives together have not been able to take them to task. Presidents may come and go, but these companies would remain for all times to make a mockery of everything established by law. They are super Presidents of all the nations combined. The ignorance of technology and its impact has brought us to this pass. Its not the rule of law of US, it is trampling the rule of law of the democratic world and human rights of all.
TO INTERCEPT A CALL YOU NEED AN EVIDENCE BASED AUTHORISATION, TO INTERCEPT BILLIONS YOU HAVE TO BE A SOCIAL MEDIA GAINT.