
‘Dictatorships often start in the face of a threat’: UN privacy chief warns - rahmaniacc
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/coronavirus-lockdown-surveillance-tracking-dictatorship-authoritarian-united-nations-privacy-a9438561.html
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goose847
Honestly relieved to see this being discussed. In South Africa we are
currently under lockdown with the military deployed to enforce the new
restrictions. I'm not necessarily against this as we have a particularly
vulnerable population and can't afford to be late to implementing distancing
measures. However, the conversation towards these steps seems to be dismissive
of people who raise concerns about potential abuse of power during this time
or people who are more interested in learning how they plan to dismantle these
emergency powers rather than how they implement them.

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L_226
Australia has recently enacted emergency legislation that suspends certain
civil liberties, including allowing the usage of phone data to be used to
track and enforce quarantine [0]. What's more, parliarment has also been
suspended for an extended period until August, meaning there is no
parliarmentary oversight for any decisions made by the PM and co until it
resumes.

[0] - [https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2020/apr/01/labor...](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2020/apr/01/labor-says-parliament-should-sit-to-scrutinise-governments-
coronavirus-emergency-powers)

~~~
bamboozled
Australia is also good at taking rights away and never giving them back.

~~~
darkteflon
As an Australian, I can confirm: Australia is _excellent_ at this.

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Chris2048
SO, can we establish something: There is no such thing as "fascism science" \-
trying to characterise a government or authority via fascism experts and such.
It's all just political Phrenology.

That doesn't mean we can't be wary of erosion of freedoms, but lets not assume
it has to look like historical fascism to be bad, or tied to some top-ten list
of fascism indicators.

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sam_goody
IMO, whether you are for or against Trump, he deserves credit for not using
the virus as a way of advancing his office's powers.

This includes both not passing legislation (such as Bush who used a crises to
pass the PATRIOT ACT, or stuffing a relief package with unrelated items), and
not creating a fait accompli (passing rules that will be accepted in the
current environment, but would make for precedent, as is happening in some
countries now).

Now, it could be argued that he SHOULD be passing sweeping laws and/or
legislation, and that both the PATRIOT act and the expansion of powers in
various countries are worth it.

But still, the good of his restraint is worth appreciating, since it is by no
means a given. (Especially considering that he is often depicted as being very
authoritarian.)

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twojacobtwo
Didn't he attempt to suspend Habeas Corpus recently?

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vanniv
No.

