04 September 2024
I have one final word on the support for radically unfettered information access and transmission on the Net and how censoring anything at all is a threat to gospel in the virtual world. In the real world, censorship of harmful information is a moral necessity. Online, it is immoral. Again: The Internet, and the devices that connect to it, have no awareness of morality. Only people can do that.
Let me pick on the two wedge issues used by activists and politicians: CSAM and terror. CSAM is the legal term for child porn ("Child Sexual Abuse Material"). Because each of us have in our lives children we know and love, the threat to any of them makes our blood boil. Every CSAM image is a child being abused. We get that. All the more so because our society is obsessed with idolatry of "childhood innocence", it's a natural priority.
In like manner, we all have read reports how terrorists have used the Net to plan and execute their acts of terror. Most of us have experienced at least mild terror when bullied; someone trapped us in a situation that threatened torment and pain. Folks, the US government has committed both evils. Not only have agents of the US government used terror, but every now and then we get a peek at how the upper echelons of government figures keep getting caught with CSAM and related crimes. Do you remember the Franklin Scandal? Pizzagate? Those weren't debunked; they were covered up. I saw the evidence. Same with 9/11; it was an inside job meant to terrorize the citizens of the US.
I know from first hand experience that the government uses encrypted channels to transmit both terror planning and all kinds of moral turpitude materials. I've seen some of that stuff and I've seen the cover-ups. If that crap can't be shared among the upper echelons, then they also cannot engage in their tactical and strategic coordination, either. Given fallen human nature, you will not have one without the other.
If you are going to stop CSAM and terror, you'll have to stop the government, too. If you allow the government to exist, you must tolerate CSAM and terror. It's either on or off. That's how it us among those of us who don't have privileged access. The system cannot differentiate. If the fans of CSAM cannot transmit their filth, you and I cannot transmit the gospel of Jesus Christ. If the terrorists cannot coordinate on the Net, we cannot share prayer requests. If we use communication, it has to be open to everyone with the means. The Internet is not the battlefield for moral crusades; it's just a channel of communication.
If it were up to me, I would reduce the threat by shutting down transmission of everything except ASCII text. I'd be happy going back to the days of dial-up bulletin boards. The gospel covenant would not be hindered by that restriction. For the time being, that's not possible. The genie is out of the bottle on transmission of media. We must take what is and use it, until God by His hand changes it.
The other thing I would do if it were up to me is strip away all secrecy and copyright online. If I could, I would go way beyond what Julian Assange did, and Aaron Swartz did, and Alexandra Elbakyan did. Every battle they fought online was simply a matter of distinguishing between the virtual realm and the real world. Data restrictions are inherently immoral on the Net. That includes all the barriers to using whatever software you can find. There should be no such thing as "closed source" software. If it can be digitized (turned into binary data), then it must be wide open to anyone who wants it. I've put my money where my mouth is on this: none of my online posts are copyrighted. All of them are public domain.
Morally upright people will give credit for authorship, but there is no reason anyone cannot use my writing talent -- such as it is -- for their own ends. God will judge them either way; it's not my problem. It's the same with CSAM and terror communications, and every other vice. When it threatens my mission, I'll fight it with the means God gives me. The Bible knows nothing about the Net, but in my convictions, the Net is not at all like the real world. What I face in so-called "meat space" is one thing; the fight against Satan online is an entirely different realm.
It's a paradox: The Internet has become the single greatest threat to humanity, and yet the greatest boon to the gospel message. Let's think about what we need to do to promote the Lord's glory online.
This document is public domain; spread the message.