Orwellian Ukraine

As it stands, Ukraine is balanced precariously between remaining a close partner of Russia and joining the European Union. The government desires to remain allies with Russia, and Russia wants another ally, so the governments have made deals mostly for economic assistance since Ukraine is in financial difficulty and close to defaulting. A significant number of people in Ukraine, however, don't care about these relations and want to move towards the EU in hopes of having higher standards of living and better trade with, and access to, the western world.The government is completely shutting out public opinion on this matter. The conflict has been escalating for nearly three months now until a few days ago, when the government decided to say poppycock to civil liberties and put in place some rather heavy-handed laws, stating that blockading public buildings, wearing masks or helmets at demonstrations, erecting unauthorized tents in public areas and even "slander[ing] a government official" are jailable offenses. Now, as made evident by vivid images on the Internet, huge clashes of a nearly medieval nature have sprung up in cities throughout Ukraine, with the opposition using armed fire rockets and volleys of Molotov cocktails.Aside from the usual rant on how media in general fails to broadcast massive protests like this in deference to stories like Justin Bieber getting arrested, the opposition of the Ukrainian government is receiving shockingly passive foreign reactions. The American government has not issued any official statements or taken any major actions, so the only funnel for information, with independent media eliminated, is the Internet.Last Friday, however, President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine signed a law that allows people to close any websites without trial or warning. Journalists face enormous pressure and huge campaigns to discredit the laws, and yet everyone that does so is rounded up by the Ukrainian special police with outstanding efficiency and is beaten senseless in a dark room. Additionally, out of the blue, thousands of Ukrainian protesters received a text message notifying them of a new law prohibiting public demonstrations.Part of this message read, ”Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance.”This is a further reminder that authoritarian regimes are exploiting the very technology once celebrated as a vehicle for liberation. Last year at Exeter, Mona Eltahawy talked about how tweeting her conditions saved her life and helped get her story out when she was imprisoned during the struggle in Egypt. But last year, in Turkey, the state rounded up dissident Twitter users, using IP addresses to track them down. Now, the government of Ukraine is tracing phone signals directly to the phones of individuals. Dictators have already proven themselves adept at pulling the Internet kill switch, with Sudan completely shutting off the Internet amid riots in the city of Khartoum. All of this discredits the popular myth that technology is inherently a liberating force; it can be used as a vehicle of oppression just as easily.Anyone who was within cell phone range of the largest protests received that text, yet Edward Snowden’s leaking to the general public that our government has been able to see our Internet transactions and phone calls for decades was barely able to effect change. From where springs this indifference that we show towards these rights to privacy? Have we taken them for granted to the point that even when faced with the clear and evident facts of privacy denial, we can barely muster the anger to get out of our chairs and utter one word of dissatisfaction? Or has the year once again become 1984, where war is peace, freedom is slavery and most importantly, ignorance is strength? 