Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#21

Post by petermcneeley » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:02 AM UTC

The speech might be judged socially but the punishment is always economic.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#22

Post by OuterVale » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:02 AM UTC

There are things I'd like to say on the web but which I haven't because I fear I could be arrested in some countries I am likely to visit in the future.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#23

Post by sehw » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:07 AM UTC

[dead]

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#24

Post by mbgerring » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:13 AM UTC

I started feeling that way around the time ICE illegally broke, entered and ransacked a low-income housing building in Chicago, terrorizing residents regardless of citizenship or immigration status. Once I realized that fear of reprisal was preventing me from expressing how I felt about it online, I resolved instead to get louder and more strident in my public speech than I had been in years.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#25

Post by newsomix9xl » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:16 AM UTC

Totes mcgoats. Its why I use unnamed sock puppet accounts.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#26

Post by newsomix9xl » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:18 AM UTC

OuterVale wrote: post #22

There are things I'd like to say on the web but which I haven't because I fear I could be arrested in some countries I am likely to visit in the future.

Or not allowed to enter.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#27

Post by adrianwaj » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:19 AM UTC

If so, the solution may well be making more private speech more public, rather than making more public speech more private.

Imagine if every email provider had an option to "publicize" next to the ability to star an email or email thread.

It's the private, anti-free speech stuff that would be interesting to see up close. And I'm just talking about email communications.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#28

Post by userbinator » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:19 AM UTC

No.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#29

Post by DylanG26 » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:24 AM UTC

Yes. AI makes it more trivial than ever to extract your sentiments, and when you combine that with a government that's eager to crush dissent then things get tricky.

Re: Is surveillance risk chilling your online speech?

#30

Post by SubiculumCode » Tue, Jul 21, 2026, 4:25 AM UTC

Risk? Or correctly assumed truth that surveillance is occurring?