Does the Government use the Internet to Provoke Social Injustice?

In the past, people had dreamed about a digital place where individuals of all different backgrounds could come together to collaborate on ideas and expand their horizons. They believed this platform would be able to benefit the entire world and work for the good of the people that use it. At first, when the internet was created, it had seemed as if their grand scheme was finally coming to fruition. It was the best thing since sliced bread and everyone around the world was trying to get a piece of their own. Immediately after the internet was released to the public, it was obviously not as prevalent as the internet we know today. Internet access was restricted to libraries and other public buildings, or on gigantic computer monitors that would most likely get laughed at if they were still in use today. While all was well in the beginning phases of the internet’s young life, the storyline of the internet was about to start changing for the worse. As the internet continued to grow, more and more online sites and resources were beginning to emerge. These online sites include but are not limited to some of the same popular sites we know and use today; such as: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. These social media sites changed the internet’s main purpose from a more educational resource, to a leisurely activity, often engulfing users within the software. With the addictiveness these apps have proven to have the potential for, it raises some eyebrows on if we can trust the companies that create them or the government that regulates them. How can we be certain that whoever is hiding behind the screens of our phones isn’t going to use that power for something bad? Unfortunately, on multiple occasions, the internet actually plays a crucial role in governmental actions that ultimately deprive people of social justice.

Whether we choose to believe it or not, social injustice within the United States Governmental system occurs everyday via fake news and misinformation. Many of us are actually quite familiar with these occurrences or even bear witness to them, regardless if we take a stand or not. In the article “10 Tech Issues that will Impact Social Justice in 2017,” the author Wilnieda Negron shines some light on particular issues to look for while surfing the web. This article begins with a slight introduction to their piece and then proceeds with 10 separate headings of issues the internet inevitably brings along with it. One of these headlines reads: Fake news, campaigns of misinformation, bias, and propaganda are proliferating. Out of every headline, this one hit home the hardest when thinking about social injustice in the American Government. The reason for this being that we are in the midst of arguably the most controversial and heated presidential election in the history of our nation. Time and time again we go on social media and the internet as a whole, only to be bombarded by anything and everything political. A specific example of this is in the below figure, when president Trump had retweeted this chart from the recent election. The chart shows Joe Biden gaining over 128,000 Michigan votes overnight while he gained 0. It was proven to be a simple glitch in the counting system and was soon fixed, but not before it created mass hysteria throughout the entire country. The lack of social justice stems from American people who are being deprived of the truth and blinded by fake news and misinformation. The internet in this case, has created a platform for the U.S. President to spread incorrect information to his own people, making them skeptical of a particular candidate. Moving forward, it is important that we make sure to do research of our own and fact check posts on social sites such as twitter; in order to ensure the information we are spreading is not misconstrued.

-The above image is a tweet posted the morning after election day from a fox news reporter. This tweet went viral and shows a mysterious jump in the votes for Joe Biden overnight. It was later determined; however, that there was a glitch in the counting system and the votes were later corrected.

Another common place that social injustice is evident within American politics is with various movements such as BLM. At first glance, the BLM movement may seem like a way the internet has used it’s platforms to promote social justice; however, when looking closer you can see that this isn’t entirely true. Due to the current nature of our leisure based internet, when an occurrence of this happening comes up it usually isn’t taken as seriously as it should. People that are unaffected by the BLM movement see that important campaign as a joke or attempt to change its meaning. The Black Lives Matter trend was created in 2013 as a way to draw attention to black people that have been dealing with oppression for hundreds of years. Although this internet trend stands as a great starting point to draw awareness to this oppression, it is quickly met with opposing trends such as All Lives Matter which begins to nullify the BLM significance. Because the internet has turned to a platform much more focused on leisure than growth, it’s users are quick to take a trend that has significance and importance and redirect the attention back to themselves. Although this is an unfortunate series of events, it further highlights the ways that the internet actually impedes on social justice, this time in the form of a political movement. As a global population, we can take a stand to attempt and combat this injustice. By coming together and recognizing that other problems than our own could be just as important, and should be treated as such.

A very common and quite large knock on social justice that is prevalent in conversation today is the conspiracy that the American governmental organization, NSA, has complete access to our technological data. Although the thought of this may be quite scary, the article, “US: New Evidence Suggests Monitoring of Americans,” brings those nightmares to life. This article states, “Newly released documents reveal a US Defense Department policy that appears to authorize warrantless monitoring of US citizens and green-card holders whom the executive branch regards as “homegrown violent extremists,” This basically states that the American government can decide to tap into anyone’s phone camera whom they deem may be an extremist. With so many question marks and uncertainties surrounding the government’s current authority over the internet world, who is to say they don’t keep tabs on all of us? Regardless, before committing any sort of crime, it is indisputably unjust for the government to crack into the private lives of the independent people that live within American boundaries. Even if the government has suspicions of someone being an extremist, they should need to have evidence along with a warrant to be able to access any information. The government’s power and ability to access any data saved on private devices clearly creates social injustice at the hands of citizens.

Although the American Government is a hotspot for the Internet promoting social injustice, it doesn’t exempt the rest of the world from this same reality. With the interconnectedness that we are so accustomed to with 21st Century technology, it is no wonder similar occurrences happen across the globe. A specific example of social injustice within the United Kingdom’s Government is from an article titled, “Is the Internet to Blame for the Rise of Authoritarianism?” This article does a fantastic job of answering the question… you guessed it… If the internet is in fact to blame for the increased authoritarianism. The author argues that although the internet is a place where people of all backgrounds are able to communicate and collaborate together, it often does the exact opposite. It is no secret that tech companies riddle their programs with algorithms to keep you coming back for more; therefore by continuing to blind you with the exact things you want to see, they are able to draw your attention away from real news. The author of this article claims that, “Many times, tech companies are forced to do this in order to direct negative attention away from the government. These algorithms in a sense, puts people in cages and blinds them from what really may be going on.” This is a major knock on the social justice of citizens because in order for the government to be trusted, they must maneuver with complete transparency. By letting citizens become trapped in the internet world, the government can much easier hide what they don’t want people to see, even though their decisions should be open to public scrutiny. Blinding the public from particular governmental actions depletes the social justice of all people. If the government is responsible for making the decisions of all people, they should go about business with complete transparency to the public. Across the globe, it has become evident that the internet often plays a vital role in governmental issued social injustice.

For years, the internet stood solely as a place for users to access if they were in need of knowledge beyond what their brain had room for. With a plethora of online platforms today, the internet can serve many purposes and can unfortunately even provoke social injustice. In America especially, we see countless examples of social injustice within politics. From nullified political movements and fake news to complete surveillance of our electronic devices, anything governmental and the internet haven’t mixed well at the expense of American citizens’ rights. Furthermore, in the United Kingdom specifically, the internet itself has been the cause in the rise of authoritarianism and continues giving their government more power over their people. In all of these cases, we are able to recognize the internet’s myriad of platforms and political systems as root causes for social injustice in all corners of the earth. As humans and internet users alike, it is our job to continue pushing for justice for all people, and not let the internet blind us from the things that are truly important in our world.

Citations

• Negron, Wilneida. “10 Tech Issues that will Impact Social Justice in 2017.” Ford Foundation, 2020 Ford Foundation, 12 Jan. 2017, www.fordfoundation.org/ideas/equals-change-blog/posts/10-tech-issues-that-will-impact-social-justice-in-2017/. Accessed 8 Nov. 2020.
• Smith, David. “The Backlash Against Black Lives Matter is just more Evidence of Injustice.” The Conversation, The Conversation, 21 Oct. 2017, theconversation.com/the-backlash-against-black-lives-matter-is-just-more-evidence-of-injustice-85587. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.
• “Is the Internet to Blame for the Rise of Authoritarianism?” OpenDemocracy (London), OpenDemocracy, Dec. 2018.
• “US: New Evidence Suggests Monitoring of Americans.” Human Rights Watch, @ 2005 by Human Rights Watch, 25 Oct. 2017, www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/25/us-new-evidence-suggests-monitoring-americans#. Accessed 18 Nov. 2020.