[Translation by Manuela Beccati , from the original Jacob Appelbaum published on openDemocracy]
I hope you will join me in installing free software in the name of freedom and the fight against mass surveillance, and the refusal of exploitation by those who have ruined: our intelligence services.
This article is taken from the opening speech of Jacob Appelbaum the World Forum for Democracy 2015 [16 to 21 November, Ed].
The situation right now is very difficult. I am very sorry for what has happened in Paris and Beirut, in a context that seems to have taken and exported to the US wars on European soil.
That said, the answers I’ve seen scare me, and not only in ‘technological environment. I am a technology expert, but I’m also a human being, and I refuse to be labeled as someone who can talk only about technology.
Some of the things I’ve heard have given me a lot ‘ of atavistic fears and I would say, especially to people who are here, European residents as I am right now, which I encourage you to learn from the mistakes of my country, in the wake of our latest, horrible terrorist attack.
We have responded to the attacks with the war, and now that these wars have arrived at the threshold of your home, we have witnessed heavy interventions characterized by further violence, which effectively nourish what he wants Daesh. Daesh still want more war.
They want to eliminate the gray areas, so that anyone with a beard, anyone who is a Muslim or has a different look, be treated as an outsider and indicted. They want to spread xenophobia, generate more violence, then we should ask ourselves: is this what we want?
We are witnessing the failure of our intelligence services . The intelligence services of the world argue that encryption is a problem. But the evidence shows, the attacks in Paris have been perpetrated by people who used credit cards registered to their name, and they used to send normal SMS messages like ‘Let’s go’.
No one is wondering how these people manage to bring the arms trade – we are talking about tangible goods that do not travel over the Internet. How can it happen that the intelligence services have failed so miserably and now they are trying to distract people, in response to accusations by other allegations, and giving in meal to the public that the fault is encryption. We are at this level?
And what about the fact that the UK has organized a plan with its intelligence services, as the department JTRIG [ Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group Translator's note], which included among its targets religious minorities with political purposes of extortion? Because the United Kingdom is authorized, and in fact encouraged, to harass minorities so that they become their informers, otherwise threatening to deprive them of citizenship? Citizenship, which is the law that guarantees all the other rights.
This is one of the fundamental problems. The threat comes not from technology or encryption . At the base is the intolerance, the lack of openness, the lack of acceptance, fear of the other.
And as the proposal we have heard from France, which should be no preventive arrests and imprisonment of Muslims, it is a fact that must not happen. It is absolutely against the rule of law, and even if it were made legal this procedure, would against basic civil liberties .
When the attacks took place in Paris, I was in Kuwait attend an artistic event organized by the French Ambassador, and I was very shocked by what had happened. I am talking to people of what I would have expected more involvement. Not that they did not care, but speaking to me said something that left me speechless.
They said: “ our brothers and sisters are dying in Syria, so far there are about 250,000 . More than a million people have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, what are a couple of hundred people in Paris. We have suffered, now it is they who suffer . “
What can we learn from all this?
Violence in Aleppo. Narciso Contreras, Freedom House / Flickr CC license.
The right answer is to commit more violence? Undermine our fundamental freedoms? Add backdoor programs? Push to make people believe that the problem is the technology? I do not think so. But at the same time is an issue to appeal to the opinion that we need to address and reduce the bad – that way you do not observe and study its root causes. For example, pacifism is much more powerful when we consider it a choice, and we choose it as an alternative to the attitude of violence.
It is simply considered that violence is abstaining from the dialogue, you want to get rid of everything, and then respond with violence is a tragedy , which in turn leads to further tragedies. Bombarding Syria will not create peace, at best we get a submission. Peace is not to surrender.
Instead, we should take more account of our being human. For example, it was broadcast a news which announced that suspects of terrorist activity have been killed . It also said: no civilian was involved . But what is a suspect, EU national, if not a human being? If not a civilian? Each person then he could be accidentally killed. What actually happened to the man of Brazilian origin after the bombing of the London Underground at the hands of British intelligence. That person was innocent. But since his rights were suspended, for a case of coincidence, it was decided to kill him without a fair trial.
We should take as an example the Norwegians and the answer that they used they, not the American one. After the acts of blatant racism, violence and terrorism committed by Breivik, Norway has decided that he would choose a path of greater democracy: rather than alienate and repel people, continued to do things the way he always did, refusing to reignite the terror, refusing to allow the terrorists to change the Norwegian society. This is the right example. We should not follow the road taken by the Americans, should we choose to follow the Norwegian example of non-violence and greater democracy .
This is precisely the response that we should take into account, or expand our freedom. Yes, we must fight extremism, but in particular we should fight extremism and lack of limits of States on what they can do or how they do it. The Council of Europe and the European Court of Human Rights today exist because we understand from history that this is a lie.
The United commit acts of terrorism, as do others, and we must not forget that This lesson is a lesson gained with difficulty. If we want to eliminate the violent extremists, we must remember that the extremists put us silenced by violence or threats of violence. Then we must be willing to fully open, have a welcoming nature, strive for justice, and firmly refuse to remove the refugees.
We must remember that we have an obligation to the refugees, who come from a story where others have not acted properly, without that obligation. Only extremism is correct, and that’s what that says we have an unlimited right to form and maintain our beliefs, and prevent these rights are reduced. This includes the right to trial, along with the right to face an accuser. It has introduced a new notion: that we are all free, and everything will remain free until we submit to endless security checks, border controls, those massive and targeted surveillance, along with the identification mandatory for almost all acts. But this notion of freedom is totally incompatible with freedom as we understand it, by the Court of Human Rights, by individuals and by the social values of freedom.
National Security Agency headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland. Public domain photos, Wikimedia Commons.
We are also witnessing the spread of political opportunism, like that of Robert Bob Litt, a member of the secret services, who He says for example that “ the legislative environment is very hostile today “, however, “ could turn in case of a terrorist attack or a criminal event where it can be demonstrated that encryption has hindered law enforcement. “
There is an added value, he said,” in maintaining open our control in a situation like that ” . These people are despicable like when terrorists seek to exploit the death of people for erode our freedoms in exchange for personal power .
Today there is technology that helps us to confirm , secure, expand our freedoms, where we have the right to read, to speak freely, and the responsibility to be kind to each other. These people want to weaken our technological infrastructure, they want to turn on Internet censorship in both the private and public sectors, and through the service access ( backdoor ) that directly, putting us at risk in any case.
There are two things you can do right now, if desired. First, you can install Signal on your smartphone, software that allows you to make voice calls and text messages encrypted without backdoors, dodging the targeted methods of mass surveillance. I encourage you to do it now, it’s a free software and free. You can also install the browser Tor , which will give you the opportunity to surf the Internet and to remain anonymous, so we will be able to conduct operations without leaving trails of data tracked by spies who might use it against of us at any time. And avoid being targeted for other types of cybercrime. Both are free software, made for freedom.
Remember that the same intelligence that today claim to intrude into our systems, are those who exploit the tragedies that have imposed Vodafone Greece to intercept the Prime Minister, and operating mass surveillance across Europe. We can not trust them. They are the intelligence services of the United States and the United Kingdom using their surveillance systems to allow assassinations of state-of-court.
We need to make sure the Internet, and make these people’s life more and more difficult if not impossible. The security issue today is not a security issue as opposed to privacy. Our security requires a strong privacy and our security also requires autonomy, transparency and accountability, requires freedom of speech, respect for fundamental human rights. And instead of less democracy, we need more democracy. Rather than systems less secure, we need more secure systems. And we need to use them, to make them understand and support them financially.
I hope you will join me in installing free software for freedom and fight against mass surveillance, refusing to be manipulated by those persons They have failed: our intelligence services.
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