Thursday, September 10, 2009

Operation Crackdown of Web Dissenters

To what extent shall the national government, in its desperate attempt to curtail people’s liberty and right to freedom of expression, silence those who dare speak out against its depravity and inadequacies? Unfortunately, this question has remained throughout the history of the Filipino’s struggle for genuine democracy and even in this modern day where they say that liberty has never been more protected and speech never more free, such a question will perceptibly remain for as far as we can foresee in time.

End archaic language portion.

A few days back, a friend of mine posted on Twitter how, for no apparent reason, his blog site disappeared. Initially, of course, I dismissed his situation as one of those random internet glitches which would have to happen to some unlucky person, and unfortunately for him, considering that bloggers out there must number in millions, that had to happen to him. He insisted however that he may have been hacked by some government agent or government-hired professional hacker, who then worked the sudden crashing of his site, because of his endless criticisms against the current administration and his very strong and harsh, albeit well-written and rather articulate, opinions about the way the government is being run.

Again, I just thought he was being a blowhard, giving himself that much importance to actually think that the government would be doing a crackdown against him for his statements. What a friend right? But anyway, I mean of the million bloggers out there, at least a good 20% is all about bashing the government and espousing a critical view of the government, or if not, even a revolutionary position. Why would he be singled out?

After reading all the Tweets that he…twitted, and some rethinking on my part, I realized that maybe he does have a point. He is after all a very well-read blogger and a rather staunch activist as it can be gleaned from all the things he’s written. And besides, this government is so paranoid anyway they won’t stop at anything to make sure that all possible dissenters are suppressed from trying to influence other people to make a stand against that moral, social, and economic corruption embodied as the government.

But then, it may have just been a glitch.

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