Dad Saves America How the Government Hijacked the Internet - Mike Benz
Oct 30, 2025
In this discussion, Mike Benz, a former State Department official and founder of the Foundation for Freedom Online, dives into the dark side of surveillance and censorship. He reveals how child protection tech can morph into government censorship tools. Mike explains the CIA's integration within the tech industry and outlines the risks of digital IDs that threaten personal freedoms. He sheds light on powerful private entities like Oracle and warns against the implications of centralized data control on civil liberties. It's a compelling look at the invisible forces shaping our online lives.
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Child-Protection Tools Became Censorship Tools
- Technologies made to stop child sexual abuse (like near-duplicate hashing) have been repurposed to censor political content.
- Creating infrastructure for one narrow purpose plants backdoors that expand into broader surveillance and suppression.
Parental Fears Drive Risky Laws
- Parents understandably want state backups to protect kids from online harms, but heavy-handed legal solutions create black markets and worse harms.
- Technical parental controls exist and can be preferable to broad state-mandated ID systems.
CIA Used Fake Vaccine Drive For Biometrics
- The CIA used a fake vaccine program via Save the Children to collect biometrics in Pakistan to find Osama bin Laden.
- That operation was exposed and led the CIA to promise not to use vaccine clinics for surveillance again.
