Small black screens are mediating our daily contact with reality. But who is really behind these screens?
Photo: Ales Nesetril, Unplash
Newsroom (25/05/2022 8:30 PM, Gaudium Press): Today, cyber-technology is so closely tied to us that some people are already saying that everyone is half cyborg, as cell phones are almost part of ourselves…
In turn, as Technology makes life easier, it can be addictive and may also establish the worst of dictatorships, one capable of monitoring even the breathing of human beings.
In the last few days, the case of Xie Yang, a human rights activist in China, has been in the news. One day he was going to visit the mother of Zhang Zhan, a journalist sentenced to four years in prison for daring to reveal what was happening in Wuhan at the beginning of the pandemic. Xie went to the airport on November 6 – the authorities warned him not to make that trip – and just as he was about to board the plane, bam, his health passport turned red: current regulations required him to be quarantined for two weeks. Immediately, he was forced to go to a ‘quarantine centre’ that was in reality, a centre of political repression.
Moreover, reports inform that Iran will ration access to subsidized bread through digital coupons and a Biometric National Identity Card (BNIC). The cards, in place since 2015, have a chip that stores biometric data: iris scans, fingerprints, and facial images.
As the cost of wheat increases, for many Iranians buying bread and other food in the supermarket is no longer an option: 50% of Iranians live below the poverty line, and it is estimated that market prices can be up to 7 times higher than subsidized food. Iranians already rely on the state food subsidy program, run via biometrics.
Small black screens are mediating our daily contact with reality. But who is really behind these screens? (SCM)
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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