A Citizens online privacy should be absolute: A positive argument
This writeup is part of a series of debates where I was presenting the argument in favor of the motion that a citizens online privacy should be absolute.
(In this argument, I addressed my opponent as Prime Minister Modi as this was a presidential debate)
To watch the highlights of the debate:
When you go online on the internet you should be getting your privacy, shouldn’t you? I genuinely have no idea why we are even debating on this. Why should your government stop us from expressing ourselves through social media?
Greeting prime-minister Modi and the audience gathered here. Online privacy is the amount of privacy you get on the internet. It protects our personal data, financial data, and communications. We are born in a free democratic nation where everyone has a freedom of speech, and the freedom to express themselves. Now, in a world with a pandemic, we are mainly doing this with technology. But apparently, your government is completely disregarding this and is about to do something that is dangerous for our rights. It is trying to break end-to-end encryption. End-to-end encryption is important for us to exchange message privately; but you are forcing companies to allow them to see our private messages without our consent. Tell me Mr. Modi, do you want them to be seeing what you message to your friends and family on WhatsApp and Instagram? I believe not.
It is also forcing companies to send an employee to break into our data and technically spy on what we do. This completely disregards our rights!
The parliamentary also can control what you upload on social media. This means that you are not allowed to express your opinion on a particular topic which your government thinks is adverse. This means that you cannot continue to reach out to the world about the Current Affairs. Thus, you will hide the bad actions that your government takes so that the country’s people do not start protests and riots.
Let me talk about fake news and rumors. Fake news and rumors have filled social media. However, it does not make sense to break into our WhatsApp chats and see each and every single message that we send. This is not the country that I have grown up in! Mr. Modi, I hope that your ignorant mind has understood why you should stop peeking into our texts with our family and use AI and technology to remove the rumors and fake news! It’s 2021, not 1950!
I will rest my case by a quote from Dulce Ruby. “Not every part of your private life needs to be public”. Thank you.
