[D66] ‘We are moving into a new, controlled society worse than old totalitarianism’ – Zizek on Google leak

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‘We are moving into a new, controlled society worse than old
totalitarianism’ – Zizek on Google leak
Published time: 17 Aug, 2019 23:12
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‘We are moving into a new, controlled society worse than old
totalitarianism’ – Zizek on Google leak
FILE PHOTO: Banner protesting against 'Google Campus' construction in
Berlin, August 17, 2018 ©  AFP / John MacDougall

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Modern censorship is more dangerous than open totalitarianism, it being
concealed and incorporated in our daily routine, says Slovenian
philosopher Slavoj Zizek, commenting on the insider leak detailing
Google’s news blacklist.

The intellectual told RT he’s not advocating for online anarchy,
comparing it to snuff movies in hardcore pornography – some regulation
should be in place to block harmful content on the internet, he says.
But hiding political motives for suppressing voices online is what
worries Zizek the most.

“We all know we have to censor things at some level, but the main rule
for me is that the process should be transparent. Not in the way – I’m
talking about the developed West – it is done now, when all of a sudden
somebody is prohibited and you are not even allowed to debate it,” Zizek
explains. The “false choice” between politically correct censorship and
radical liberalism is a trap, he believes.

This week, conservative transparency group Project Veritas published
documents it received from an ex-Google employee. The documents appeared
to confirm that Google can boost or de-rank news sources based on a
seemingly biased set of internal rules. Calling the practices “dark and
nefarious” the whistleblower, Zachary Vorhies, also leaked a doc
detailing Google’s “blacklist” that lists nearly 500 websites, including
both conservative and leftist media outlets.

Zizek believes the Big Tech's practice of blacklists and shadow bans
could prove an opportunity for right-wing activists to show themselves
as a group fighting establishment politics and targeted for their
opposition. The philosopher thinks this tactic will actually backfire
against liberals by giving “the new populist right a position where they
can say: you see, we’re the true alternative, we’re the true oppressed.”

Google is likely not the only tech megacorporation with a tight grip on
their users’ digital menu, Zizek argues – but “the process isn’t some
kind of a dark plot,” rather an inconspicuous slide “into a new,
controlled society.”

    What’s terrifying about it is that we don’t even experience it as
something controlled. We just use social media, buy things, go to a
doctor – and all the data about us is out there. But those are the
things that we perceive as our freedom. So what we perceive as freedom
becomes the very way we are controlled.

One doesn’t know anymore “if there is secret police following you or
somebody reading your letters,” and this in Zizek’s mind is what
differentiates it from the totalitarianism of the past. Modern control
is hidden and undeclared, Zizek says.