Who is reading your private messages on Facebook?

A few years ago if you were in Kazakhstan you wouldn't be able to access this blog due to government censorship. Multiple opposition online media outlets and blogging platforms have been blocked in Kazakhstan for years.

Online censorship is a way for governments to restrict freedom of expression and control what's made public and what stays out of a public eye. You might be surprised to find out that it's not only authoritarian regimes that try to impose censorship online but also Western free-market democracies. According to Google Transparency report numerous government agencies worldwide send requests to Google to remove the content criticizing the government. Here are some examples of such requests:

When former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden leaked secret information online it revealed mass surveillance programs enacted by CIA with the help of telecommunication companies and European governments. One of the NSA's secret programs included the so-called PRISM program that could directly access the servers of Google, Facebook, Apple and others.

Encryption is a way to decode the online data to make it unreadable for hackers and surveillance programs. Online messengers such as WhatsApp uses encryption to protect users' personal data. NSA developed a series of tricks to circumvent web encryption technologies in order to be able to read encrypted online data.

"Even as the NSA demands more powers to invade our privacy in the name of cybersecurity, it is making the Internet less secure and exposing us to criminal hacking, foreign espionage, and unlawful surveillance. The NSA's efforts to secretly defeat encryption are recklessly shortsighted and will further erode not only the United States' reputation as a global champion of civil liberties and privacy but the economic competitiveness of its largest companies," Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said at the time.

Social media has become an invaluable platform to protect your rights and freedoms and voice your protest. Canadian musician Dave Carrol became famous for creating a protest song against United Airlines and posting it on YouTube.
After fruitless 9 months of negotiations with the airlines to receive compensation for his guitar that was damaged while on Airlines custody Dave decided to make a music video about the incident. The video went viral and The United Airlines managing director contacted Carrol to apologize and asked if he can use his video for the staff training. Bob Taylor, owner of Taylor Guitars offered Dave Carrol two guitars. Within 4 weeks after the video was posted on YouTube United Airlines' stock price fell 10% costing stockholders about $180 million in value.

In May 2012, Carrol published a book, United Breaks Guitars: The Power of One Voice in the Age of Social Media about his experience dealing with United Airlines.

In the age of  traditional media such as television and newspapers civil society had little resources to influence governments, voice their discontent and protect their rights and freedoms. New media has given us an enormous potential to change things. Internet has become a global platform and home for people with different cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic backgrounds. Internet can be hardly controlled by governments and therefore their attempts to control it and impose surveillance and censorship is not surprising.
In the name of War Against Terrorism world leaders are now trying to legally obtain personal data and ban encrypted messengers such as Telegram. It's up to us Global Network of Internet Users to stop governments from trying to restrict access to free flow of information online.