I have a confession. I kinda loathe tech elites. Too many have the same privileged upbringing and attitude as the politicians and investment bankers who’ve helped revert the United States into the developed world’s grossest plutocracy. I don’t see uber-blogger rants about privacy and tech elites public spanking other tech elites very helpful at all to the real issues facing the citizens of the world.
However, that doesn’t mean that it isn’t time to organize against the threats presented by corporations that collect our personal information under the guise of openness and yet have transparent goals of controlling the Internet. I am basically an Internet utopian – I believe that global interconnectivitiy is a powerful force for democracies. I support net neutrality, I hate Chinese and Australian government censorship of the web, and I hate Facebook’s drive to control Internet content and Apple’s attempt to control what you can see on their devices. See, these companies know that they are more important than you and me.
Deleting my Facebook account today felt good – like throwing a rock at a tank.