Insidious government surveillance may be worse than outright censorship

by Liat Clark

The insidious nature of government spying has a chilling and subtle effect on web freedoms that could ultimately be more damaging to society than outright censorship, creator of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee told the audience at the launch of the World Wide Web Foundation's 2013 Web Index findings.

The legacy of the revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden into the actions of the NSA, GCHQ and others will be long-lasting, intimated Berners-Lee. While nations such as China openly engage in censorship, what the US and the UK has done could potentially leave a trail of paranoia that in turn leads to a trend for self-censorship among citizens of the allegedly "free" West.


"The question of 'who is it that's got the off switch for our connectivity' started to be asked because of Egypt," said Berners-Lee. "It's a rather obvious thing you can see happening, and a country that does that doesn't get very far. Turning off the internet got the youths onto the streets because that's what they had left to do. So blocking of the internet is kind of obvious. And censorship in places like China is obvious too when it comes to blocking whole websites. It's hard to pretend it doesn't exist when the rest of the web has links to those websites.

"But spying is this insidious form, because of its chilling effect If you feel someone's looking over your shoulder, there's all kinds of things you will not do… [You're not going to be] able to use facilities because of nameless fear."

This year's Web Index was finished in September, so Berners-Lee suggests some countries may have ranked even lower considering the revelations of the past few months. The US and the UK predictably fell a few spots down the table on the sub-index Freedom and Openess. Though the UK came out third overall, one spot ahead of the US, it came 24th for Freedom and Openess. It came eighth for Universal Access, first for Relevant Content and third for Empowerment.
"Provisions against cybercrime, terrorism, or blasphemy are frequently being employed to silence legitimate dissent or justifying blanket digital surveillance"

It shows the contradiction that can exist between the public's perceived freedoms online, and the government's control of those freedoms. For instance, while the US is first for Empowerment -- defined as "how far the Web is empowering people not just to receive information, but to voice their own views, participate in public affairs, and take action to improve their lives" -- it came 27th for Freedom and Openness. Citizen empowerment and public engagement is concealing the darker underbelly of wider spread abuses of personal privacy. "Provisions against cybercrime, terrorism, or blasphemy are frequently being employed to silence legitimate dissent or justifying blanket digital surveillance," explains the report.

Anonymity is a key area where the state's agenda directly clashes with concepts of freedom, suggested Berners-Lee, and it will be a complex issue to solve.

"Some things are good, like the openness of government data, and some thing are just bad. But anonymity is one where it's not so simple. NGOs that work under oppressive regimes and are in contact with the underground campaign for it. Then we have people dealing with cyber bullying where clearly if someone's saying nasty, mean untrue things about you then you can reveal who they are."

In any situation where users say they need a secondary identity, Berners-Lee says we need "a whole social system and machinery" around that service to protect others. Communities need to be self-monitoring so that anonymity can legitimately exist where necessary -- as with whistleblower Edward Snowden.


The revelations of the US and UK's mass surveillance of its own citizens could also have a knock-on effect among those countries employing more obvious means of censorship.

"In my work I campaign in countries in a diplomatic way to explain why it's important for their economy and future to have freedom of expression," said Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, also at the Web Index launch. "Wikipedia provides a great platform for doing that, and in countries where it's blocked or restricted it's hard to say we only block terrorists or paedophiles -- it's not exactly a crazy thing. But when I'm sitting down with the state council information officer in China or Kazakhstan and saying to them 'you're on the wrong side of history, this is not the approach that will be here with us in 20 years and it will look bad', it's important to be able to point to the UK and US. And when we're no longer able to do that, it rings a little hollow to say 'you shouldn't be spying'."

As such, Wales said it's important we as citizens voice our concerns, before that mentality of entitlement makes matters worse. "We may trust GCHQ not to disappear activists, but China may feel more justified and will disappear activists. That's something we should be concerned about.

"I have some real concerns about the direction the web is taking."

Rebecca MacKinnon, author of Consent of the Networked and cofounder of Global Voices Online, reiterated that now is the time for citizens to empower themselves and ensure these matters are not left to governments alone, a point backed up by the fact that 94 percent of all countries surveyed in the Index fail to meet "best practice standards for checks and balances on government interception of electronic communications".

"Trust no one unless you can hold them accountable," she said. "In China where they block international sites heavily and control data tightly, they're saying from a national security point of view, we did exactly the right thing.

"There's potential for people to assert more localised power over how the web is developing in their own countries. If that drive is coming from the government claiming to be acting on behalf of government, it's an excuse for more control and surveillance. The role of citizens in insisting on accountability is key."

Bright Simons, president of the mPedigree Network, said he doesn't believe trust has been irrevocably broken by the NSA-GCHQ revelations, mainly because people weren't all that trusting beforehand. "It's leading to a backlash of fascinating proportions. People are going to make a choice. There is awareness among citizens that it's an issue to be concerned about, and a greater level of citizen empowerment is needed. It's an important milestone in citizen digital rights."

Berners-Lee suggested that empowerment should be facilitated by the destruction of the gulf that exists between the technology world and the policy world -- our technology pioneers should not be afraid to engage in political matters, and policymakers need to understand the tech when drafting relevant legislation.

"I spend a lot of time encouraging people to program, not just because we need some people to understand technology -- we need lawyers and those in parliament to understand it, otherwise they're not going to be able to make appropriate steps." We need those with the technological knowledge to be writing policy as well as standards in protocols.

Despite the air of pessimism surrounding the Web Index 2013 launch in light of the state spying controversies, Berners-Lee remained positive about the many good things that are happening around the globe. According to the report the internet remains vital in catalysing citizen action and real world change. Despite the fact 30 percent of nations engage in targeted web censorship and "moderate to extensive blocking or filtering of politically sensitive content", the web and social media played a big role in "public mobilisation" in 80 percent of nations

"This is not being spearheaded by political parties and NGOs," said Anne Jellema, CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. "It's spontaneous and grassroots action driven by social media." The Philippines, for instance, came 20 places higher in the table than its GDP per capita. This, she said, is because those connected are "active and creative users of the web", as demonstrated last year when they fought back against a proposed cybercrime bill and ultimately crowdsourced its replacement, a bill of rights for the internet. It demonstrates that wealth does not necessarily correlate to a free and open web practice. In fact some of the world's wealthiest nations fell far short of the Web Index's standards. Saudi Arabia, for instance, lingered near the bottom of the table for all sub-indexes.

"I am optimistic," said Berners-Lee. "I think the people will win. I have faith in people and humanity as a whole. There's going to be some push back, but change will come in lots of different ways -- from activism, but also UN resolutions. Also from within government. There are people that care about this stuff."