When Our Basic Technology Usage Makes Us a Terrorist
Identity theft, hacking, viruses, etc, all are reasons to be concerned about Internet safety.
However there is one routine service we all use that has a more subtle, but definitely more incredible potential to impact and harm all of us. When the big hub-bub erupted over the scrubbed emails of a presidential candidate, my first thought was "no big deal just ask Google or Russia or the Chinese to restore the emails because they certainly have copies of all the lost emails".
Of course the implication is that all public emails are captured and saved. Unfortunately the truth is that most if not all emails actually are captured and recorded. Especially for the so called "free" accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, MSN and Facebook. These accounts not only capture the tracking data, but they capture the actual email content looking for key words and phrases, supposedly looking for marketing data to sell.
The problem is they capture everything and it would be extremely naive of anyone to assume this data will always be used to better the human condition and that it will never be used against anyone.
The truth is, the data is already being used for politically correct purposes to track down and potentially punish "inappropriate" content. I am not talking about just pornography, because the current culture is also fixated on "hate speech" as inappropriate and terroristic content.
In just the last two years hundreds of emails, ads, messages and articles that I am personally aware of expressing concern for Christian and conservative values have been denied or blocked by the major networks and major web sites. It is a disturbing trend.
In terms of Internet safety, this censorship has gone all the way down to Joe Average citizen where individual email messages have been blacklisted and blocked because of hate rhetoric such as support for life and traditional marriage. The really scary part is this means all email is being scanned by software programs at the very least and by real people when the email originates from known conservatives/Christians.
In September of 2017 the big four (Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Facebook) announced a joint venture to weed out postings, and emails containing "terrorist content". These four companies never work together on anything. But they saw fit to develop a program were "terrorist" content, aka "hate speech" detected by one entity results in blocking action across all entities.
But the problem is who defines terrorism or hate. The answer is the liberal, politically correct, snowflake, anti-God crowd are the ones that control the technology and therefore define "hate speech/terrorism" from their perspective. What could possibly go wrong with that?
There will come a time when our values regarding marriage, life, and faith will be considered across the board as hate speech and terrorism unless...
... we become informed, take a stand for our values and are willing to step out of our comfort zones!
Steve Ensley is the CEO Founder of American Family Online (AFO). AFO believes that a Christian believer needs an Internet service that supports their beliefs and values.
