How Totalitarian is Sweden? Pretty Damn
From Sydsvenskan via En Dansker i Sverige:Swedish Minister of Justice Thomas Bodström has suggested mandatory storage of data concerning the electronic communications of all EU citizens. The idea is to save and store for a period of one to three years information about who we have talked to on the telephone and when, where we are when we use the mobile phone and when, who we have contact with through emails and when, who we chat with by SMS and when, which websites we visit and when. Perhaps also, depending upon the technical solutions, what keywords we type into search engines such as Google. This is all supposed to be for combating crime.
Well, Sweden could probably need some crime fighting. But I'm sure this could be used to combat thought crime, too. I hope even Sweden and the EU still aren't crazy enough to pass such legislation. But I'm sure if they do, the law will be lost in the cacophony made by Euro media about George "Darth Vader" Bush and the threat he poses to democracy.
posted by Unknown @ 1:00 PM
1 Comments:
"How totalitarian is Sweden?
Well, if the laws that Sweden wishes to enact EU wide, become a reality, we will never know, will we. For that is the 'beauty' of a totalitarian society - you cannot measure its freedom index, as everyone is too frightened to speak their mind.
1984 comes to mind.
Apropos of this, there are many politicians on both sides of the Atlantic, who are deeply worried by the internet. The internet has given the oridinary individual, the ability to be heard by a vast audience. Effectively, each individual now has a printing press, and a global distribution network to go with it. Information is power, and power has bled away from the Establishment ie the political and media elite. This they find very unsettling. Its the stuff of revolutions, as history has shown.
To counter this, many politicians have proposed that the internet be monitored. The reason (excuse), is that such monitoring will fight against crime, terrorism and above all, child pornography. The last item in the list has emotive power, and is bound to find an echo, as we all hate the perverse exploitation of children.
DP111
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