Peer-to-Peer #1: Tech Authoritarianism is here. Now what?
Welcome to Peer-to-Peer, a new publication from Coin Center.
It’s easy enough for us to write up a newsletter detailing what we’ve been up to in our ongoing advocacy to protect open source and privacy-preserving software developers. There’s more appetite than ever for inside-the-beltway updates on crypto policy.
But between us, this seems more fun.
At Peer-to-Peer, we will still talk about our work here from time to time. But our goal is to spend more time on why.
We see a world where the liberation that came with the early internet has been thoroughly quelled and in many places turned against the very people it was meant to benefit. We fear a looming era of super-powered digital control, where all personal data is sucked up, correlated, and fed into systems that look uncomfortably like a sci-fi precrime machine. We believe human freedom depends on the availability of open source, decentralized, locally hosted, and private tools.
This brings us to our Purpose.
The threat of technological authoritarianism looms over the world. Individual privacy and autonomy is being marginalized for control and profits by governments and corporations alike. This erosion of freedom is often slow and quiet, or sold to us as necessary for our safety.
We are here to dispel such myths and awaken the world to the encroachments we now face, and to promote the small movement of technologists working on the tools to resist this darkening state of affairs.
We will use this space to highlight reporting and commentary on tech authoritarianism, surveillance, censorship, and the people building ways out. We invite you to join us in this movement and to stay informed.
Some things we’re watching:
You’re either pro-surveillance or you’re a terrorist.
Flock is a company building a sophisticated license plate reading surveillance platform. Local police departments love them; many average citizens do not. Understandably so, as it’s not only invasive but there are documented cases of police abusing the service for personal reasons, such as stalking romantic interests. Errors in their system can also get innocent people boxed in by police.
In response, there is now an open source movement to track the locations of these cameras called DeFlock with a mission “to shine a light on the widespread use of [Automated License Plate Reader] technology, raise awareness about the threats it poses to personal privacy and civil liberties, and empower the public to take action.”
The Flock CEO does not mince words when discussing it, labelling these privacy advocates as “terrorists.”::
It’s striking to see words like “terrorist” and “extremism” thrown around so casually these days. Typically we see those terms become something of a blank check to justify any kind of enforcement or surveillance.
The Flock CEO is using the language in the same way that we would see it being used against a Belarusian democracy advocate or Russian journalist critical of Putin. He views DeFlock as agents of chaos, and Flock as a force for order.
Europe increasingly embraces open source.
Europe has had to live on America’s internet for a long time. This has made a lot of their commerce effectively subject to US law and the whims of US Big Tech. It was bad enough when the cloud blew up. Now they have to worry about AI too. In light of this, the EU is pushing “digital sovereignty,” a concerted statewide effort to reduce their dependence on American and Chinese tech.
Last month the EU released a strategy for encouraging local use of open source technology in service of that goal. It’s a smart move. Open source tech is neutral, and neutrality is better than being subject to geopolitical exposure.
The same case being made for neutral tech should be made for neutral payments too. As we wrote in 2018:
…the threat to the U.S.’s ability to enforce sanctions comes not from blockchain technology, but from the desire to end the U.S.’s dominance of international payments and settlement.
The ability the US has to affect the lives of citizens of other countries was put into sharp relief when judges at the International Criminal Court were sanctioned by the US. Despite not living in the US, being cut off from the US financial system has made their day to day lives impossible to live. It’s worth reading the whole article: “Living with US Sanctions means living in constant uncertainty.”
Open source and neutral technology is the only real answer for those who wish to remain independent during a cold war being fought through technological power projection.
Incidentally, this week Coin Center started using matrix.org and the Element app as an end-to-end encrypted internal Slack replacement. Matrix is a cool open source privacy project and they’ve had recent successes by marketing themselves to EU governments as a tool for digital sovereignty.
It turns out debanking was real this whole time. And it hurts more than crypto bros.
There was a row in our corner of X recently when a bank CEO called debanking a “crock of s***.” According to her:
“What debanking actually means is that banks transitioned out of offering crypto products or risky products like adult entertainment or something like that.”
That’s been the line all along. That it’s private businesses choosing who to do business with. Leaving aside the soft pressure that regulators (aka bank examiners) can place on compliance departments, that’s true. Who are we to force a bank to do business with someone they don’t like?
Debanking is usually framed as a right-wing concern. It was often right-wing speech that was most visibly cut off from platforms like Patreon and payment processors. That’s not the case. Or at least, it is not the only case.
Public comments submitted to the Fed’s proposal to remove “reputation risk” from bank supervision paint a much broader picture. The coalition of people worried about debanking includes crypto companies, gun owners, sex workers, religious organizations, artists, and LGBTQ advocates too. Their comments give us a snapshot of real people who have been cut off from the financial system. They show us how lawful activity can become unbankable when it is unpopular, embarrassing, politically inconvenient, or merely annoying to a compliance department.
Interesting Reads:
Cryptographer Matt Green noting that key escrow for encryption is bad enough on its own and makes no sense if the US government doesn’t even have its own separation of powers:
ICE is buying data they have been told not to collect from data brokers. A loophole in legal limits placed on surveillance.
How the UK is blowing up its internet - From our friends at Project Glitch.
Distance won’t protect you: Belarusian transnational repression in Canada - Belarusian democracy activists living abroad are still being silenced through police harassment of their families and seizure of property and assets still within reach of the state, all in the name of combatting extremism.
AI surveillance is being supercharged – and it will chill social progress - A scary op-ed from Bruce Schneier and Jon Penney. A must read for those who care about these issues.
We thank you for your time and support as we build this new platform. If you have any thoughts on the materials or feedback for us, please don’t hesitate to let us know personally or in the comments.
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Also let us know if you'd like our impressions of matter.org the end to end encrypted slack alternative we're trying. So far with a handful of minor annoyances we like it. Similarly, If there's another privacy project you like that you think we should dog food we're open to suggestions.