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Here I'm republishing an old blog post of mine originally from July 2014. The article has been slightly improved.
Alright. I never expected to write about anything remotely "political" on my blog... It's about tech, right? Ok, ok, free software _is_ "political" all by itself. Kind of. But that's about it.
While at times I'm really sick of what happens in the world, that doesn't fit well on a blog about computer topics. I admit that I was tempted two or three times to write something about all the blatant and ruthless lies against Russia and things like that. But this is not the right place for those topics. So I resisted. Then came July 1st...
I began to write a full-sized rant on that day but in the end decided to drop it and re-think things when I got calm again. Since I'm still stunned and angry at the same time however, I've simply got to write an article now nevertheless.
In that morning I read about how Paypal froze ProtonMail's account. While it is nothing new that Paypal freezes accounts, the rationale was quite interesting. ProtonMail is a provider of email services. What makes them stand out is that they are developing an easy-to-use email system that features end-to-end encryption.
Paypal freezing ProtonMail's accont
Now it's a well-known fact that there are powers out there who have no respect at all for your privacy. They want to know where you go, what you download and what you talk about when you mail grandma. You could be a dangerous villain, skilled to pretend the contrary after all - and if they can't find out what color your underwear is, you might even get away with it!
From that point of view, encryption is... well, irritating to say the least. Which makes it a clear thing that ProtonMail sucks big time. How dare they help people who prefer to keep private things private? So Paypal froze their account, because that company "wasn't sure whether ProtonMail had approval by the gouvernment" for their business. As a matter of fact, the US have quite a few strange laws. But that's another thing and it's perfectly fine if an American company doesn't wish to assist another American company in doing something unlawful. Except - ProtonMail is _not_ an American company... It's based in Switzerland!
How can it be that a Swiss company would require US approval for their business? And it's not even the first time that something like that happens. The USA has blackmailed Switzerland not too long ago. And with their "compliance" ideology they are choking many others, too. This is a very alarming and gross practice. But it is, I cannot repeat it often enough, nothing new.
A while later I read about how Microsoft had just seized more than 20 domains owned by no-ip. This cut off almost __two million users__ from using the no-ip service! And what was the reason for such a draconian action? Was the life of the president at stake? Nope. Was the whole country threatened by some ancient evil perhaps? Not really. It was far worse than that: Microsoft had found a judge which allowed the domain seizure because Microsoft _claimed_ that there were __two accounts__ involved in spreading malware...
This was the moment I had to take a look at the calendar just to make sure that I didn't mess up things and it was actually _April_ 1st! But no - unfortunately not.
I just want to add that I am not an no-ip user and wasn't affected personally. But I know people who were - one was even affected enough to finally give Linux more room both for private use and in his company. So while the whole thing is pretty much insane it has its good sides, too. Especially since I expect more people to be really upset after what Microsoft did. Maybe they should rather spend their time fixing their own broken windows than throwing stones at other people's business?
Ah, what a day. We had some news which were hard to believe if such things weren't happening over and over again. Then there was some news which left me incredulously shaking my head. What Microsoft did was ludicrous and the fact that some judge ruled in their favor is downright absurd. That cannot possibly be surpassed, can it? Yes. Unfortunately it can.
The last news is just so completely off the scala, that I don't find any words for it (not even in my native language that is). While the Microsoft case makes you question your sanity, the other thing that happened makes you struggle for your faith in mankind. Seriously.
So what happened? Well. More or less this:
__Group A__ (private individuals) who are citizens of
__state B__ (Israel) mandate
__organisation C__ (a jewish law firm) to sue
__state D__ (shiit (!) theocracy Iran) in
__state E__ (the USA) for alleged financial support of
__organisation F__ (sunni (!) Hamas) who are accused of
__action G__ (a terrorist attack) in
__territory H__ (the Gaza stripe) which belongs to
__state I__ (Palestine) as group A claims they have suffered from action G.
Now under normal circumstances you'd laugh at any weirdo who can come up with such an idea - let alone actually carry it out... When you're finished laughing and have wiped the tears from your eyes, you wish him that he'll find a good mental doctor.
The story is not over, however. The US court rules in favor of the claimant - and since Iran did what any sane person would do and denies this arrogant impertinence, there's now the _fine_ (like I said I'm at a loss for words) idea: __distrainment of the Iranian TLD (.ir)__!!
Now come on! Distrain a TLD on the Internet? Seems like they are really working hard to ruin the net. Congratulations to all those bright people involved.
In my country (Germany) the phenomena of anti-americanism is on the rise. Many people are in rage because of what the NSA did (and without any doubt continues to do). This is a rather sad thing actually, but in many cases I agree with what people say. The US government is one of the most corrupted an unsound entities in the world. Yet - and that deserves to be emphasized - that doesn't make all Americans warmongers or liars.
The government in my country is run by criminals as well and so I'm probably not in the best position to complain. After all former chancellor Schröder openly admitted (in one of the biggest newspapers of the country!) that the NATO bombings in Yugoslavia (which he supported) were against international law. By stating so he confessed to be a war criminal - and that had no consequences whatsoever. Funny, isn't it? And still I'd admit any time that I think of him as a much more "honest" person than current chancellor Merkel...
I'd really like to ask every and all Americans to try hard and reclaim their country. But there's not too much people who value freedom can do right now. Yet there is one thing we can all do: Start using encryption. Yes, invest that half of an hour to teach grandma how to write and read encrypted mail. It's not that hard.
You are telling me that you have nothing to hide? That's great! Why? Simple: Same here. It's great because it is this important little fact that makes us qualify to begin encrypting. Currently it makes you suspect if you use encryption. Well, I can live with that.
I also don't mind if those who think they absolutely have to know what I mail to my grandmother try to break the encryption. But if they want to, they may well invest quite a bit of effort. If they find it worth the time and resources to learn how much my children have grown since we last visited her, that's fine for me. If everybody used encryption it would be a normal activity. Let's aim for that!
So - what about you?