The hypocrisy of modern digital policy captured in one image.
This Telegraph cartoon by Christian Adams brilliantly lampoons the political class’s obsession with self declaration and the creation of personal 'safe spaces' to avoid uncomfortable realities.
When it comes to life online the exact opposite principle applies.
While subjective self identification is treated as unquestionable in certain social and political contexts, ordinary citizens face growing demands for rigid algorithmic verification, profiling, and surveillance.
In South Carolina a new law now requires platforms to algorithmically estimate users’ ages with high confidence and re-verify them every 100 hours of activity or face significant penalties.
This creates an obvious contradiction. High trust in self-declared identity where it suits the political agenda but near zero trust in individuals when it comes to the internet.
It makes a mockery of coherent policy by celebrating fluidity in one domain while building expansive surveillance infrastructure in the other.
Zero trust should rely on mathematics, encryption, and local data minimisation rather than handing centralised biometric databases to the state and Big Tech.
Bureaucratic governments are fundamentally incapable of effectively legislating for technologies that move at exponential speeds. The result is heavy handed laws that quickly become obsolete yet remain permanently intrusive.
If we want safety and privacy online we cannot rely on the state or Big Tech to provide it.
Real digital freedom must be built through decentralised tools, privacy tech, and with personal sovereignty in mind.
https://reclaimthenet.org/south-carolina-social-media-surveillance-law
This Telegraph cartoon by Christian Adams brilliantly lampoons the political class’s obsession with self declaration and the creation of personal 'safe spaces' to avoid uncomfortable realities.
When it comes to life online the exact opposite principle applies.
While subjective self identification is treated as unquestionable in certain social and political contexts, ordinary citizens face growing demands for rigid algorithmic verification, profiling, and surveillance.
In South Carolina a new law now requires platforms to algorithmically estimate users’ ages with high confidence and re-verify them every 100 hours of activity or face significant penalties.
This creates an obvious contradiction. High trust in self-declared identity where it suits the political agenda but near zero trust in individuals when it comes to the internet.
It makes a mockery of coherent policy by celebrating fluidity in one domain while building expansive surveillance infrastructure in the other.
Zero trust should rely on mathematics, encryption, and local data minimisation rather than handing centralised biometric databases to the state and Big Tech.
Bureaucratic governments are fundamentally incapable of effectively legislating for technologies that move at exponential speeds. The result is heavy handed laws that quickly become obsolete yet remain permanently intrusive.
If we want safety and privacy online we cannot rely on the state or Big Tech to provide it.
Real digital freedom must be built through decentralised tools, privacy tech, and with personal sovereignty in mind.
https://reclaimthenet.org/south-carolina-social-media-surveillance-law
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