Underground Cyber-road for Interesting Times

April 7, 2005

Michelle Malkin has as good a summary as any about the publication ban on testimony in the Canadian corruption enquiry, which could conceivably bring down the government. The gag order reportedly emperils any Canadian blogger who links to a site publishing the embargoed information.

This could serve as an interesting pilot project to make safe harbor in other situations.  For instance, this obscure little blog tucked away amidst Jane Austen and other such dusty pursuits, might mention that Captain Ed of [unlinked] Captain's Quarters started the disclosure ball rolling, and leave the rest to Google. Though the Cap'n has been deluged recently, and other bloggers have needed to mirror the posts.

In really serious and dangerous situations, bloggers like us might link to posts on one side or other of the critical information, and suggest that interested readers will find more interesting ideas "earlier" or "later" by scrolling. The more dispersed, robust, and unlikely the network, the less any one of us can be proscribed or targeted. In addition, it is possible to establish a free Blogger site, pretty much unGoogleable, for backstory reference whose connections could only be recovered by court order to the host company.

This is not usually our bailiwick, political corruption trials, especially of the riveting Canadian variety. But the opportunity to enter cereal-box decoder ring territory here, proposing a few conventions that might avoid direct confrontation and come in handy down the road, taps the excitement last utilized in wrapping a sandwich as a 5-year-old running away from home.

Wise and foolish virgins, and the rest of us, and all that.

Wretchard discusses the real Global Village, the chat over the fence:

...the impact that Internet self-publishing has had in breaking down political systems, whether peaceably (as in the case of Canada and the US) or not-so-peaceably as exemplified by Iran. Because the exercise of authority consists largely of information control (rather than physical control) by the State, Internet self-publishing has effectively weakened large areas of state power by weakening those controls. As a practical matter, there is not a judge in the world that can realistically enforce a gag order unless he can a) prevent the source leak or b) force compliance on all continents and seas of the planet earth.

Update: Wretchard is ahead of us in linking to an adjacent post.

Comments

[Bob Yu]

As a Canadian, that's all we talked about at the office. One guy was wondering why we weren't out there rioting to remove them from their current positions. The publication ban has been lifted thankfully.

[dilys]

Thanks, Bob, for a dispatch from the Canadian Front. In my psychologically formative youth, among the religious circles in which I grew up, there was an intense investment in information control of the hoi polloi, quite like the recent ECUSA establishment and some of the factions. I developed an intense drive to air the Full Relevant Story, by bullhorn conspiracy if necessary...

Someone once said of a writer (Dorothy Parker?) that she made a career out of "things better left unsaid." I think there is such a category -- better left unsaid -- for lots of reasons, but I am very testy as to who defines "better." Not those who are corrupt and profiting by the secrecy. Nor those who wish to help the pompous avoid embarrassment. Nor the Nanny types who have nothing interesting to say, but prefer that the rest of us nod and dodder amongst the teacups lest the slower readers be challenged.

C'est ne pas "moi, Dilys."

[Bob Yu]

Hear, hear!

I never understood why some people got intensely emotional over a politican until now. I have never felt oppressed or manipulated by the government until now.

This kiddie treatment of citizens must stop (you are too young to know this), and I will contribute to that first step by voting for anybody but Liberal candidate.