Liberation. A word with meaning.. right?

The definition of liberation falls under the following definitions:

– The act of liberating or the state of being liberated

– The gaining of equal rights or full social or economic opportunities for a particular group: e.g. gay liberation

– The gaining of protection from abuse or exploitation: e.g. animal liberation; children’s liberation.

Relating the definition of liberation back to the ‘rights of a cybercitizen’, it is clear that the current and recent issues surrounding the internet is the fuelling this form of debate.

Government sectors such as the NSA and GCHQ, tracking and collecting data on millions or people without their permission. Having accessed directly into servers of firms such as Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, online communications where tracked.

It was also later found out that the British agency GCHQ had been accessing fibre-optic cables that carry global communication data, sharing it with the American agency NSA.

Source: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23123964)

2010/11 saw the shutting down of the internet in Egypt, sparking strong debates for free speech, communications and censorship. It was said that around 80 million people where disconcerted from the internet.

It was the firm Twitter that stated its own opinion on the matter, stating it was in favor of freedom of expression.

Twitter – “the tweets must flow,” the company’s official blog said that its position on freedom of expression “carries with it a mandate to protect our users’ right to speak freely and preserve their ability to contest having their private information revealed.”

Source: (http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/28/egypts-internet-shutdown-sparks-a-communications-battle/)

It is already evident that groups of people have already formed their own kind of liberation relating to the diminishing rights of the cyber-citizen. The aim of many of these people to boost the rights for privacy. The TOR browser is a good example of this.

Source: (http://www.vox.com/2014/12/31/7470965/dark-web-explained)

Another movement being seen is the digital based group Anonymous, who have taken anonymity on the web to another level. They stand strongly for the anonymity of users on the internet and use the power of many, through knowledge sharing, to carry out attacks on websites and organisations which they feel need addressing.

A recent attack made by the group was on 23 December 2014 over its ‘biased’ reporting and the harbouring of the alleged pedophile Jimmy Savile.

Source: (http://rt.com/uk/217147-anonymous-protest-london-bbc/)

– Michael