Facebook is expanding its global surveillance network… Don’t expect the feds to protect you… In the mailbag: “We are at a tipping point”…
As regular readers know, part of our mission at The Daily Cut is to track the rise of the Surveillance Society in the U.S. and around the world.
That means keeping a close eye on the world’s most pervasive for-profit surveillance companies, Google and Facebook.
Over the last two days (catch up here and here), we’ve been taking a deep dive into Facebook’s plan to build the world’s largest currency network… and why it’s a big win for online snoops – in government and the private sector.
And today, we’ll reveal why even the most vocal critics of Facebook on Capitol Hill will be powerless to stop it.
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Facebook is building the most powerful network by merging its three messaging services – WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger.
The new platform will reach 2.7 billion people – or roughly two-thirds of the world’s 4 billion internet users.
Then Facebook will roll out a new digital coin, Facebook Coin, across that network.
The value of this coin will be pegged to the value of government currencies – the dollar, the euro, the yen, and so on. And it will allow you to send payments to anyone in the world from your Facebook messenger app.
There are less than a dozen stories about this in the mainstream media.
But it should be on the radar of everyone who values their privacy… and their freedom.
Facebook is already the largest social media company in the world. It’s now pushing to become the largest currency network in the world.
This will drag yet another part of your private life into the zone of mass surveillance we’ve been warning you about.
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When a company becomes a de facto monopoly – as Facebook has – politicians usually take note.
And we’re seeing that happen today.
Last week, for instance, Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren called for the break-up of Facebook and other Big Tech firms to “promote more competition.”
Republicans are happy to take the hammer to Big Tech, too.
During his confirmation hearing earlier this year, President Trump’s new Attorney General, William Barr, said he was open to antitrust regulation against Facebook and other Silicon Valley giants. Barr…
I think a lot of people wonder how such huge behemoths that now exist in Silicon Valley have taken shape under the nose of antitrust enforcers.
Barr is the country’s chief legal officer. When he says the size of Big Tech firms is a problem… you know this is getting serious.
Back in November 2017, Dan made the following prediction in The Bill Bonner Letter (paid-up Bill and Dan subscribers can catch up in full here)…
As the American public finds out just how duplicitous and deliberate tech companies have been at trying to produce actual addiction, I believe the backlash against tech will be swift and severe. Then, as politicians pick up on the public mood, the anti-trust break up calls will begin.
And it looks as though Facebook has been paying attention, too.
As our tech investing expert at Legacy Research, Jeff Brown, told us, it’s the deeper reason Facebook wants to launch its own currency.
He just got back from D.C., where he was meeting with a group of U.S. senators.
They discussed how blockchain technology – the distributed ledger technology behind bitcoin – can give the U.S. a competitive advantage over its rivals.
But Jeff has also been thinking about the implications of Facebook launching the world’s largest private digital currency.
And he says Facebook will use its coin to dupe its users into going along with round-the-clock surveillance…
Eventually, enough people are going to realize that Facebook is stealing data from them and not giving them anything back in exchange. The argument that Facebook is providing a service – free messaging and social media platforms – to its users as a justification for taking and selling consumers’ data just doesn’t work. Consumers are not made aware of what Facebook will do with their data, nor that Facebook will track, and retain, all of a consumer’s online activity.
Having the Facebook Coin gives Mark Zuckerberg the ability to, when the time comes, say, “We’re going to share the wealth with the people who use our platform. We are going to give every user a portion of the advertising revenues that we generate from the data that we collect, and sell, on them.”
The Zuck will be able to do this with the flick of a switch. Jeff again…
With Facebook Coin, Zuckerberg will have the payment “rails” in place to distribute coins to his users. I believe the time will come when Facebook will have to make a major concession to regulators to avoid being broken up.
What could be more perfect? What regulator is going to argue with Zuckerberg? He can turn around and say, “Hey, Facebook is now sending every one of its users a payment every month. How can this be bad for the consumer? We recognize the value of our consumers and we are demonstrating that by sending them money every month.”
Mark Zuckerberg is a sneak. But he’s no dummy. What better way to persuade folks to allow you to spy on them than simply to pay them off?
Facebook Coin will not only allow him to burrow deeper into your financial life. It’s also the perfect shield against rogue politicians – such as Warren and Barr – who want to rein Facebook in.
When we refer to the “Deep State,” we don’t mean some organized group in government with a clear-cut agenda.
As we’ve been showing you, it’s a network of power that exists between key parts of government and the private sector.
And Silicon Valley is a crucial node in that network.
As former national security analyst and Deep State whistleblower Mike Lofgren put it when we met with him in Baltimore two years ago…
The Deep State’s spy agencies are utterly dependent on Silicon Valley’s technology – data from social networks, email accounts, cellphones, and so on – and cooperation to perform their missions.
I want to stress that this is the furthest thing from a conspiracy theory. What’s important to understand about the Deep State is its sheer everyday-ness. It is the vector sum of all the petty bureaucratic agendas of agencies, major corporations, and think tanks – all marching like a colony of driver ants to maximize their advantage.
Especially if The Zuck decides to start paying people to submit to his surveillance.
That makes the advice we gave yesterday even more important…
Stick with cash, gold, and bitcoin. They’re the best ways to shore up your financial privacy.
And make sure to review the steps Dan laid out to permanently check out of the Surveillance Society – what Dan calls “going dark.”
Last Tuesday, in the ongoing mailbag debate around socialism, reader Therese H. said…
We can’t survive as we have historically if close to half the people in this nation aren’t paying taxes. The public at large has been erroneously sold a bill of goods that it is compassionate and moral for such a large group of people not to pay taxes and/or receive earned income credits.
This is just a way to keep people in a position of dependence, while enabling them to keep voting for more ongoing benefits from the half of the country that is paying taxes. This puts everyone in a bad spot, except the politicians, who live like a ruling class.
And it’s got your fellow readers thinking…
Therese H. did not say inequality could be solved with more taxes. She said those that don’t pay taxes have a vested interest in keeping things as they are or adding even more freebies with their “pay me to live here” mentality, which correlates into more votes for the left.
I agree with her. We should not be paying anyone to live here. Sad to say that is what is happening too many times and in too many places.
– Donald R.
I agree with Therese H. that we are at a tipping point, in which half the populace has connived with devious politicians to shear the wealth creators in this country. They are rather like a parasite or a cancerous tumor that saps the strength of a healthy body.
As I see it, the problem stems from dishonest individuals not accepting responsibility for their failures. I have no problem with individuals joining to amortize risk or to be able to accomplish an economic goal that could not be accomplished by individual means. But when the group’s actions prove not to coincide with objective reality and their plan fails, it behooves every individual of the group to make an honest assessment of the failure.
– Chris F.
The inequity of income is astronomical, not only in this country, but in all the socialist governments of the world. America’s educational institutions have failed miserably at teaching the masses about the opportunities of capitalism and how it’s supposed to work.
Now, the gates are open to politicians to espouse the supposed benefits of socialism without the requisite of explaining how such a system can succeed financially. We’ve permitted our universities to indoctrinate the teachers, who have been indoctrinating our youth for many years! The outlook for reversal is bleak.
– Kenneth S.
Do you believe America’s education system has failed to teach our youth about how capitalism works, like Kenneth S. says? Are you worried about how Facebook’s new currency network will affect your digital privacy?
Write us at [email protected].
Regards,
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Chris Lowe
March 13, 2019
Dublin, Ireland