WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stated in a recent interview with The Guardian that the high Facebook penetration in Iceland makes Icelanders potential informants for the government, many more proportionally than the informants of the Stasi in East Germany.

“The penetration of the Stasi in East Germany is reported to be up to 10% of the population – one in 10 at some stage acted as informers – but the penetration of Facebook in countries like Iceland is 88%, and those people are informing much more frequently and in much more detail than they ever were in the Stasi. And they’re not even getting paid to do it! They’re doing it because they feel they’ll be excluded from social opportunities otherwise. So we’re now in this unique position where we have all the ingredients for a turnkey totalitarian state,” Assange stated.

He explained that in the past the government had to decide who should be watched but with modern technology it is possible to accumulate all text messages, telephone conversations and emails for later reference.

Click here to read more about Assange’s and WikiLeaks’s connection with Iceland.

ESA

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