Anti-Tech Extremism Worries the Same Federal Government That's Been Fueling Anti-Tech Extremism

· Reason

Anti-tech extremists are beginning to worry federal law enforcement authorities. Wired obtained "more than 1,000 pages of unpublished reports from the Department of Homeland Security, FBI, and fusion centers" that detail plans to keep an eye on this new category of supposed domestic threat.

It's hard to know where to begin here. Maybe with that meme about the Leopard Eating People's Faces Party?

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For years, the federal government and politicians from both parties have been stoking broad and hysterical anti-tech sentiment. They have hauled tech CEOs before Congress and blamed them for everything from sex trafficking to teenage suicide, politically motivated violence, Donald Trump winning or not winning elections, and much more.

The government may not have single-handedly created anti-tech extremism, but it's been a prime kindler of it. In an attempt to gain more control over online speech and online activities, authorities have spent the past decade fueling an anti-tech wildfire. Now they're concerned?

Well, maybe. As Wired points out, there could be something more going on here.

By portraying protesters and political activists as extremists, federal authorities gain cover to conduct surveillance and investigations. We've seen this countless times before, from the monitoring of socialist groups, civil rights advocates, antiwar protesters, and others considered subversive in the last century to more recent antics involving Black Lives Matter activists or government-critical groups on both the left and the right.

Illogical and sometimes illiberal anti-tech sentiment certainly abounds—and deserves criticism. But putting the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security on the case could endanger free speech and people who are merely exercising their First Amendment rights. It could be used to justify monitoring protester group chats, sending federal agents to surveil peaceful protests, and more.

A March report from the Northern Virginia Regional Intelligence Center showed "monitoring of constitutionally protected events and demonstrations related to critical views on technology," notes Wired. "These events included multiple 'Tesla Takedown' protests … and a 'Break Up With Tech Rager' sponsored by Eject Elbit, an activist group organizing to halt investment in the Israeli weapon's manufacturer Elbit."

And intelligence analysts hired by the federal government "appear to be scouring the web for what they claim to be anti-technology sentiment as well," notes Wired.

Meanwhile, a report from the New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau warns that "the chaotic atmosphere that may result from emergent AI technology in the next five years may fuel large-scale protests that devolve into civil unrest and anti-tech violent extremist activity, especially in large urban areas such as New York City."

With all the animosity toward AI—and misinformation about data centers—out there, it's not absurd to worry that some of this could lead to vandalism or violence. But on some level, the call is coming from inside the house. So, maybe instead of creating broad and vague new categories of people to label "extremists" in need of surveillance, the FBI should talk to U.S. and state leaders about halting their own extreme anti-tech rhetoric and regulation.

In the News

"Plan B for STIs" is effective against syphilis and chlamydia. DoxyPEP, an antibiotic that can prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs) if taken within 72 hours after unprotected sex, is doing the job well when it comes to syphilis and chlamydia but not when it comes to gonorrhea, according to a new study published in The Lancet: Infectious Diseases. DoxyPEP "cut the risk of getting syphilis or chlamydia by up to 60%," reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

But it had no effect against gonorrhea, and there are signs that doxyPEP may be contributing to drug resistance in the bacteria.

The overall results are promising for a new class of therapy that is seen as a potentially important tool against rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, public health experts said. The study results around gonorrhea were disappointing but not surprising, they said. Drug resistance in gonorrhea has been an increasing problem for decades, and though doxyPEP may have sped up the process, that doesn't mean people should stop using it. In fact, San Francisco this month updated its guidelines for use and now recommends it for some high-risk cisgender women.

In 2022, San Francisco developed guidelines for doxyPEP use for men who have sex with men and transgender women. "Within a year of offering doxyPEP widely, rates of syphilis and chlamydia were down about 50% in those groups," notes the Chronicle. " There was no change in gonorrhea."

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More Sex & Tech News

• North Carolina House Bill 1232 would not only define personhood as beginning at fertilization—making anyone who performs or gets an abortion guilty of first-degree murder—but also justify "the use of deadly force" to protect fertilized eggs.

• The American Institute for Boys and Men aims to do research on porn that isn't politically or ideologically biased. "Researchers for the institute say there is little longitudinal research that has been done on the subject, and that much of the existing research has been funded by religious institutions and other groups that are opposed to pornography for moral reasons," notes the Deseret News.

• Will Linux be exempted from California age-verification requirements? "An amendment to California's AB 1856 would change the definition of an 'operating system provider' to exclude open-source software from California's age verification law, mirroring a similar exemption in Colorado," notes The Verge.

• Massage businesses continue to be subjected to serious police raids for occupational licensing violations. (Police, of course, say they're looking for sex trafficking.)

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