Safe Internet Day… for whom?!

On Tuesday, 9 February 2021, we celebrated the 18th edition of Safer Internet Day with activity of sorts occurring across the globe. The theme once again: "Together for a better internet.” The day called upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all, and especially for children and young people.

Nice thought. On the face of it at least. Social media though, went not-quite-ballistic. After all, apart from a handful of parents who’re passionate about protecting their children from porn, pedophiles, stalkers and other digital creeps, not quite sure who really cares. So as the home page of the originator’s proudly proclaims, the ‘… the day called upon all stakeholders to join together to make the internet a safer and better place for all…’ excludes a whole lot of people and organisations who can actually do something about making the internet safe, but choose not to.  

As for the average internet user, as long as the internet allows them to do pretty much what they want, why bother. Many may have even responded with the cursory thumbs up, heart, clap or what have you, and gone about life just as before.  Social platforms who can surely do a lot of content curating, choose not to. Instead they employ thousands of outsourced fact checkers, so provide ‘politically correct’ messages to their users. 

A large search engine, for instance is more concerned about censuring and de-platforming individuals and groups opposed to the beliefs of their founders, political allies, financial backers and senior leadership, rather than curtailing pedophilia, porn, terrorist regimes and genuine enemies of society. All in the name of being ‘woke’ and raking in the bucks. 

Unbeknownst to most people right now, there’s something deeper going on with the internet and its safety, that doesn’t get highlighted or, conveniently ignored.

If that statement confuses you, that’s because it’s supposed to. If you can’t quite figure out what’s going on, or find yourself not in control of your life, you’re quite like Neo, in the movie, The Matrix. Let me quote for you verbatim, the conversation between Morpheus and Neo that may sound familiar:.

Neo: Because I don't like the idea that I'm not in control of my life.

Morpheus: I know exactly what you mean. Let me tell you why you're here. You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain. But you feel it. You've felt it your entire life. That there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is but it's there, like a splinter in your mind driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

Neo: The Matrix?

Morpheus: Do you want to know what IT is? The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us, even now in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.

Neo: What truth?

Sounds bizarre, dystopian or conspiratorial? Then it’s working well and the goal is being achieved.

Silicon Valley is building its own version of the Matrix: a corporate-owned reality, powered by intrusive surveillance and manipulated by algorithms, with ordinary people serving as sources of data and energy to be harvested, and monetised, until their death. The key difference, and the reason why this Matrix is worse, is that it's not just a movie. This corporate layer on reality is actually being built right now even as we speak. 

So the next time we come across these feel good days, with their cute # tags, let’s remember, there are wheels within wheels, that never stop turning, even when you sleep. And, they’re going in going in every other direction, but follow safe paths.