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What most concerns me about Libra is the potential for further marginalization. People locked out of the financial system, unable to pay rent because a status update flagged them as a sex worker; unable to access healthcare because Facebook thinks their identity is fraudulent.
This is business-as-usual for the financial system, and there is no reason to believe that Facebook won't bend the knee to US federal regulations in this respect (they already do) - but couple that requirement with access to a wealth of social metadata, the harms are innumerable.
Financial Censorship kills people. And the only reason it hasn't killed more people is because the current systems still have many holes. In an ever digital world, with a large chunk of payments captured or mediated through Libra, those holes start getting smaller.
Additionally, arguments for stricter, censorship resistant currencies will lose ground to convenience, speed, "safety", law-enforcement friendly initiatives like Libra if it gains traction.
Marginal usecases are seen as criminal usecases.
Marginal usecases are seen as criminal usecases.
SESTA wiped out entire areas of the web in less than a year because internet corporations, the same ones signed up to Libra, decided that sex workers & queer people weren't worth defending their free speech ideals for.
You really think they will treat transactions any different?
You really think they will treat transactions any different?
These companies actively participated in one of the largest censorship events the Internet has ever seen. They have had years to demonstrate an inkling of moral fiber and have always been found not just wanting, but actively aligning themselves with censorship & surveillance.
I also want to point out that this isn't some kind of fanciful prediction, this is all based on current Facebook policy & their explicit statements around Libra and their approach to "criminal activities" on the network.
This is all just business as usual.
This is all just business as usual.
I run an organization (@OpenPriv) dedicated to the privacy concerns of marginalized communities, and at every. single. turn. so much comes down to financial censorship. It is the domain of control.
And honestly, much of the work to be done there isn't purely technical. It is in capturing power from the existing systems, and distributing it into new systems.
You can't fix a broken system by participating in it. That isn't how systems work.
You can't fix a broken system by participating in it. That isn't how systems work.
Anyway, this is a long way of saying that, in a world where the legal zeitgeist is arguing over the definition of concentration camps, bodily autonomy and genocide - facilitating "crime" is a feature.
