Do you have any doubts that the US government's spy programs, particularly the NSA intelligence service, have made people paranoid? Let's make it clear today.
Jonathon Penney, of the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, analyzed its release Wikipedia and found that visits to listings related to terrorist groups dropped by 30% after Edward Snowden's revelations about NSA spying on online citizen activity.
In his study, 'Chilling Effects: Online Surveillance and Wikipedia Use', Penney appears to be checking monthly Wikipedia page hits for 48 topics the US Department of Homeland Security said it monitors on social media. These pages include tags such as: 'Al Qaeda', 'terror', 'weapons grade', 'Abu Sayyaf', 'Iran', 'extremism', 'Nigeria' and jihad.
The researcher discovered that 16 months prior to Snowden's revelations had specific 3.000.000 articles about a month's visits. In the post-Snowden era, visits fell sharply to 2 million in the first post-first revelation interval, and stabilized at just under 2,5 million 14 months later.
The Penney survey highlights that government's spyware programs discourage the legitimate exercise of citizens' rights by the threat of legal sanctions. In this case, in searching for information to learn what is happening around the world.
Penney concluded:
If people are afraid to be informed about important news and other important events, or from doing a simple research on the internet about the issues of law, the better safetyς και της δημόσιας τάξης, όπως “τρομοκρατία”, τα Results they will also have serious implications for public order and public discussion on the subject. With people potentially held in fear that prevents these basic acts of information gathering, they will be less informed, and the wider processes of democratic consultation will be weakened.
His research could help a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of the nonprofit Wikipedia against the NSA and the Justice Department. The lawsuit claims that the services of the US have violated the Fourth Amendment through their mass surveillance programs.
