The Government Is Definitely Still Watching You
Channel: Common Sense Soapbox
Date: 2020-08-25

When Seamus is arrested for spying on other people’s conversations about economics, it becomes pretty clear that the government doesn’t actually frown on monitoring the actions and communications of individuals. They just frown on OTHER people doing it. Despite the initial outcry when Edward Snowden leaked the details of the US government’s domestic surveillance apparatus to the public, the broad and often warrant-less collection of metadata continues to happen. Constant surveillance leads to serious problems, not least of which is self-censorship.

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CREDITS:
Written by Seamus Coughlin, Jen Maffessanti, and Sean W. Malone
Animated by Seamus Coughlin
Produced & Edited by Sean W. Malone

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LINKS:

https://www.oyez.org/cases/1967/35
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/nsa-surveillance-may-be-legal--but-its-unconstitutional/2013/06/21/b9ddec20-d44d-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324904004578535670310514616
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/11/only-2-of-federal-criminal-defendants-go-to-trial-and-most-who-do-are-found-guilty/
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/03/16/americans-views-on-government-surveillance-programs/
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2017/01/the-watchers
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/30/nsa-americans-metadata-year-documents
https://www.wired.com/2015/03/data-and-goliath-nsa-metadata-spying-your-secrets
https://www.wired.com/2013/06/phew-it-was-just-metadata-not-think-again
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-are-the-nsa
https://www.propublica.org/article/nsa-data-collection-faq
https://fee.org/articles/why-the-surveillance-state-is-dangerous/
https://fee.org/articles/mass-surveillance-is-spreading-along-with-covid-19/