Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning said censorship remains a “major threat” and advocated for a more decentralized internet to help better protect individuals online.
Her comments come amid ongoing tensions over online safety rules, with some tech executives recently trying to push back against concerns over content moderation.
Speaking to CNBC’s Karen Tso on Wednesday at the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Manning said one way to ensure online privacy could be “decentralized identity,” which would allow individuals to Be able to control your own data.
“Censorship is a major threat. I think the question is who is censoring and for what purpose – and censorship in the 21st century is more about whether you are promoted like an algorithm and how you censor.” The fine-tuning seems to be working. ,” Manning said.
“I think social media and the monopoly of social media has conditioned us to the fact that certain things that drive engagement are going to be attractive,” she added.
“One of the responses we can take is to go back to the more decentralized and distributed internet of the early 1990s, but make it accessible to more people.”
Nym Technologies Chief Security Officer Chelsea Manning introduces NymVPN during a press conference at the Media Village with Nym Technologies CEO Harry Halpin during the second day of Cyber Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, November 13, 2024.
Horacio Villalobos | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Asked how tech companies could make money in this situation, Manning said a “better social contract” must be developed to determine how information is shared and accessed.
“One thing about decentralized or decentralized identification is that with encryption, you can check the box yourself instead of relying on a company to provide you with a checkbox or acceptance, and you can look at the decision from a technical perspective ,” Manning said.
“No more secrecy and transparency”
Manning, who worked as a security consultant at Nym Technologies, a company that specializes in online privacy and security, was convicted in a military court in 2013 of espionage and other charges for leaking a trove of secret military documents to an online media publisher. WikiLeaks.
She was sentenced to 35 years in prison but was later released in 2017 when former US President Barack Obama commutation.
Asked how much the environment for whistleblowers has changed today, Manning said: “We’re in an interesting moment because information is everywhere. We have more information than ever before.”
She added, “Countries and governments no longer seem to be investing the same amount of time and energy hiding information and keeping secrets. What countries are doing now seems to be spending more time and energy spreading misinformation and disinformation.”
Manning said the challenge for whistleblowers now is sorting through the information to understand what is verifiable and true.
“It’s no longer a matter of secrecy and transparency,” she added.
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