Blockchain might just protect free speech.
By: Vinay Nair
Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Government, Decentralization, Free Speech

Blockchain might just protect free speech.

Humanity has been warring over freedom of speech for centuries.

With the ushering in of the digital age, life has become much more comfortable for humanity as a whole. But it has been the reason for many sleepless nights for legislators and policymakers across the world. It is getting proved over and over again that laws drawn up before the advent of computers have disastrous consequences when applied to issues created by technology.

But change is happening, whether we like it or not, and it’s happening across the world.

Photo by arvin febry on Unsplash

London has CCTV cameras set up on almost every corner of its streets and the moment one sets foot in London, they realise that every step that they take is being watched.

Governments across the world are tapping phone and messaging channels.

While some do it under the veil of denial, many do it openly, brushing it off as a “security measure”.

They argue that citizens desire security, even if that comes at a cost.

Even photos are being automatically embedded with geographical information and Instagram has only made it easier to do so.

It is therefore not surprising that legislators in Wyoming have made it illegal to gather data of any kind from open land in their state. Which by extension, also implies that it is also illegal to take pictures of any location that might put the government in a tight position or under a bad light.

Drafted and signed on by Governor Matt Mead, the primary motivation behind this legislation was to keep environmentalists and activists at bay from any site that can provide evidence of wrongdoing on the government’s part. Any evidence gathered by violating it would be inadmissible in court.

Additionally, this legislation gives landowners complete freedom to use every legal tool in their arsenal to protect their land from being trespassed on. A loophole that is a boon for some, but dangerous for others. What’s more concerning is that this may serve as a model for the neighbouring states like Kansas City, North Dakota, Montana, Utah.gov to set up their own similar laws against data gathering.

Regardless of one’s standpoint, this is data censorship at its finest. Violation of these legal statutes carries a prison sentence of up to one year, civil trespassing liability and upto $1000 in fines.

Legal statutes like these seem harmless when read directly as they are, but when one considers its direct consequences, the bigger picture comes into view. In this case, the statute gives reporters and citizens an incentive to “look the other way” when they see anything that points to the government of Wyoming’s wrongdoing; or face severe prosecution.

Where does Blockchain fit in all of this?

It is not news that governments across the world are trying their best to control the information that flows in and out of their countries.

When seen from a different perspective, it makes sense to monitor data, given how valuable it has become in this time and age. But people across the world are standing up against this gross violation of their privacies, and the creation of Blockchain was just a part of that movement. It is therefore not surprising that many governments feel threatened by Blockchain and its applications.

To start off, decentralised currency such as Bitcoin or ethereum flies directly in the face of Government regulation: they don’t behave according to fiscal and monetary policies, they are not tangible and most importantly, they are decentralised.

In other words, there is no Federal Bank for Bitcoins.

Blockchains use stretches far wider than just cryptocurrency, though. For example, while evidence in its conventional form may be subject to tampering and thus become inadmissible in court, a transparent solution using Blockchain technology can easily circumvent this issue because every user in that system has a copy. The risk of misuse of data drops down to almost zero as nothing can be taken offline once it’s in the system because there is no centralised server in use.

Humanity has been warring over freedom of speech for centuries. Thousands have perished defending their rights and failing over and over again.

But when one sees Blockchain’s promising results, it’s hard not to admit that there is a silver lining to all of this — that no matter how hard some governments try, freedom of speech can never be completely eradicated.