If there's an option to using alternatives to those you don't trust, like Google or Apple, that's good. If not you need to find an alternative service.
Facebook does this already. Not only posts and comments but also messages between two people.
The system is used to hide content, change content, shadow ban and the like.
Even by its own standards it's typically used incorrectly, but most users have no workable way to appeal.
The content reviewed is often visible to low paid workers in various countries. Similar systems have been infiltrated by hostile governments. (Twitter is a case in point.)
(If you use FB you can sometimes probe the system and better establish the details.)
The system is also used to prevent one user informing another that they've been squelched.
My guess, this would give rise to even less competent implementations and actual elimination of political opponents and the like.
"does this" is maybe a little misleading here. Facebook has their own platform which they monitor. Like or not, that's something very different than mandating that every system should have a backdoor.
I'm unconvinced that this was dealing with humans. To me it looks like automated systems that synthesise human style interactions. The code isn't ready for release but they did anyway.
On this issue I suggest figuring it out for yourself. Look into the technology a bit and decide.
This issue illustrates that public pronouncements and published material can be misinformation and opposite to the obvious truth. Great ways to identify liars for yourself.
1. Many of the creators of web sites and many of the users have changed. The creators often know diddly squat except some framework, they often work for a dullard and produce dull nonsense. The audience is often deeply "consumer" in the derogatory meaning of the word.
Result: When you're surfing you see so much of no interest that it's no longer fun.
(There is good stuff out there it's just so hard to find.)
2. The search engines also actively destroyed all those people who used to list interesting sites. Now the replacement for finding interesting sites is often some half witted algorithm, that's definitely not human, definitely hasn't the slightest clue and won't even let you take charge to get what you want.
3. People used to write their own material, experiment with program driven sites, be interesting. Now so many, even those who used to be interesting, make regurgi-posts all the time. They provide a link to an article that they've often not really read. That article is produced by somebody under time pressure who thinks the web is some text and a stock image or two, but mostly 100 times as much code as anything useful, so they can watch your every move, extract your money.
That's enough for now. If you want you can recreate the web as something that increases your intellect, not this destroyer abomination thing, choice is yours. If you have say five or so friends similarly inclined you can do it. Your choice.
A defeatist piece. If you're determined and have initiative you can achieve a lot. If you depend on the legislators in society, like this author, you may indeed be doomed. But you don't need to be.
The good thing is that with defensive measures you can stop much of it. With retroveillance you may even be able to strike back from time to time.
We need privacy at the societal level though. Even if I have perfect privacy for myself, bad actors who invade everyone else’s privacy are still able to influence society in a way that has never been possible before. Think of the election interference made possible solely by the huge amounts of data these companies have.
Even if I have perfect privacy, I’m still screwed if I live in a society where 99% of people don’t.
So construct a government where individuals are not secured or compromised their liberty depending on the outcome of an election. You speak of the popular will being corrupted by an external power, but the tyranny of the majority is enough of a threat to the safety of the individual and the tenants of natural law anyway.
Your perfect society is everybody's perfect society, one where collective force is used to secure individual liberty, and not choke it.
100% privacy can be hard, for some people also next to impossible to achieve, but making spying more difficult and expensive is still worth. Surveillance is pervasive because it is relatively cheap; what if suddenly it became more costly after people change their habits and adopt safer technologies? Companies do that for profits, and governments use taxpayers money; forcing them to spend more by putting obstacles will hit where it hurts the most.
Depending on the legislators is what most people have to do since not everyone has the time to focus on their privacy - The price of giving up privacy isn't so much that they should focus on it instead of leisure in the few daily hours of free time afforded by the other parts of their life (and sometimes they're directly compensated, eg. ad-supported hulu costing less than ad-free).
Yes, you can fight for your privacy, but good luck fighting for other people's privacy (what they mean by 'protecting privacy').
> Depending on the legislators is what most people have to do since not everyone has the time to focus on their privacy…
Not to mention the knowledge. The "everyone for themselves" approach doesn't address the actual problem, which is why it's important to think about this issue beyond our own personal networks and defensive capabilities.
While I mostly agree with you, it's a very hard endeavor that only a few extremely motivated individuals can do.
I have a Linux desktop and a GrapheneOS smartphone. However my ISP still knows a lot of things about me (and I'm not sure that a VPN provider would be better) including my geoloc, the websites I go to and how much time I spend on them.
I clean my cookies regularly, I use different browsers for different activities, but with browser fingerprinting it's probably in vain.
So basically I'm 80% there. But it's pretty tiring not to have the same apps / capabilities as others (I lost half my contacts by not having whatsapp), to be conscious that I clicked a Google link by mistake etc
The last 20% are way too much overhead for me (TOR etc).
And frankly I don't know anybody else doing it (IRL).
You need the choice.