If you ignore the ideological content of Jan 6 for a moment and look at the mechanics of the investigation, you get a good lesson in the threat social media poses to public protest. Retroactive forensic analysis in a surveillance society can have a powerful chilling effect
https://twitter.com/ryanjreilly/status/1422996135149547522
Two traditional aspects of protest are in tension—one is that it's a open display, and the other is that it's ephemeral. A world where police can track participants down years after the fact, maybe even after laws have changed, is a different world from one we've ever lived in
I think about this a lot in the context of Hong Kong, where someone was just put away for six years for displaying a political slogan that was chanted by millions of people over the course of 2019. That conviction wasn't retroactive, but it's just a small further step away.
A world where everything is remembered forever is unlivable.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
