"The only difference between a Nation State and a Mafioso protection racket is the letterhead and the rituals -- and the series of concessions, hard-won over eight centuries, that we call 'civil liberties'."
That's how I was going to start this article about the importance of defending our civil liberties online. I was going to write about dusk falling at the end of another busy day, the shopkeeper counting the cash in his till, only to have two thugs turn up to demand their share as "protection money" lest something terrible happen to his business. Or his kneecaps. I was going to compare this to the State demanding its share of the shop's profits in the form of taxes to pay for the state's defence, and the shopkeeper's defence, from unspecified enemies. And the penalties if that money wasn't paid.
Link: EFA
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