On Freedom

by Timothy Snyder

It is disturbing to think that our emotions, and even our actions, arise from the work of such people. But they do, and that makes us less free. Our emotions can be automated because our networked portable microprocessors ceaselessly communicate data about us. It is easy to calculate our vulnerabilities—to find our most probable states. When my Ukrainian student Zhenya was taken prisoner, he managed to erase his cell phone data while locked in the trunk of a car, so that he would not put his friends in danger. On a macro scale, though, we cannot easily protect others or ourselves. The agglomeration of data about our social media use makes us vulnerable, as groups, to targeted propaganda. Data collection can become the structure of unfree politics. China has a smaller incarceration system (at least officially and proportionate to its population) than America or Russia; perhaps this is because the entire country is a kind of prison. Chinese authorities judge you quantitatively, with a numerical rating that determines which spaces your body can inhabit. Your body, rather than enabling unpredictable connections to others, becomes a part of a system of measurement. Your qualities are turned back into quantities and turned against your freedom. The physical world closes down around you. In a certain way, every citizen of China then becomes a celly.