Re:Facebook, WhatsApp Will Have to Share Messages With U.K.?
by philipov on Saturday September 28, 2019 @02:44PM
(#21102120)
If you look at the way elections work at a micro scale in the US, you will begin to lose confidence in the assumption that they are elected by the people. Political machines have huge influence in controlling who it's possible to vote for, and swaying low-information voters. That makes sure they have a lockdown on decision-making, even if they allow a few mavericks through the cracks for the sake of plausible deniability.
Even if this or that individual politician gets voted out, or even ten of them, it won't stop the machine's influence. They're still the ones who decide who the replacements can be chosen from.
From the government's perspective, they are to keep "us" safe. It's easier to do that if no one's safe from us. :)
Granted, that's a little over-ominous because the government's mission statement is to keep its people safe, and it's also elected by its people. Either of these two facts changing is the way bigger danger; backdooring centralized services is stuff that happens in the meantime either way.