Orwell versus the Terrorists: A Digital Short

Orwell versus the Terrorists: A Digital Short

Summary

On 5 June 2013, the Guardian began publishing a series of documents leaked by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, revealing the extent of internet surveillance undertaken by government and intelligence agencies. It provoked an immediate outcry. ‘I didn’t want to change society,’ Snowden would later say, in exile. ‘I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself.’ And to some extent, he has.

Snowden’s leaks have provoked important debates about the precarious balance between individual privacy and national security on the internet. As a result of his revelations, the internet – and the way many of us use it – is changing dramatically. A new ‘crypto-war’ over the right to online privacy is being waged, with the net becoming increasingly difficult to monitor, and censorship more difficult to enforce. New opportunities are opening up for human rights activists and journalists, but also for criminals and terrorists.

Orwell versus the Terrorists is an insightful and revelatory examination of the history of the battle over privacy online, and a shocking glimpse of the frontline tactics of both sides. In a world in which the rules governing online activity are hazy, nebulous and often contradictory, it also presents a powerful and convincing model for the future of net-surveillance post-Snowden.

About the author

Jamie Bartlett

Jamie Bartlett is the bestselling author of The Dark Net, Radicals, and The People Vs Tech, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and won the 2019 Transmission Prize. He founded the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at the think-tank Demos and regularly writes on technology and society for the Spectator, the Sunday Times and elsewhere. In 2017 Jamie presented the two-part BBC TWO documentary series The Secrets of Silicon Valley. His TedTalk about dark net drugs markets has been watched nearly six million times. In 2019 his critically acclaimed BBC podcast series The Missing Cryptoqueen reached number 1 on the iTunes charts, and has been downloaded millions of times.
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