Peer-to-peer file sharing service BitTorrent recently revealed that it was behind a shocking set of billboards aimed at the NSA. Strewn across New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco, these mysterious billboards generated a great deal of speculation over the last few days, according to the Huffington Post. While some billboards ran with the line, “Artists need to play by the rules”, others were found saying “Your data should belong to the NSA.”While talking about the motivation behind this project, BitTorrent Vice President of Marketing Matt Mason has said, “These statements represent an assault on freedom. They also, for the most part, represent attitudes Internet culture has accepted. Chips we’ve traded for convenience. Part of the allegiance we’ve sworn to the web’s big platforms and server farms. That’s what you get for going online. We put these billboards up last week in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Because we wanted to remind the world what’s at stake on the World Wide Web.” In a conversation with the source, the BitTorrent executive went into detail about why the company decided to take this step. While talking about this, Mason said, "The NSA spying scandal really gave us the opportunity to have a wider conversation with the public," he said. "Suddenly the public realised what a server was; what centralisation was and the dangers that come with it. The Internet, at its core, was meant to be decentralised, but as we've witnessed, it doesn't really work like that now."
BitTorrent hits out at the NSA in a series of shocking billboards
The image above is an edited version of what BitTorrent has been putting up across cities. In the official post, the executive has linked back to an article that critically looked at a user’s dependence on centralised servers of companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Rationalising his stance, Mason said, "Having just a few systems like that can be dangerous. You can't subpoena user data when there isn't a central server or cloud." The executive clearly said that such systems open up the possibility for corruption seeping in. Reaffirming this, Mason said "When you have a few people with that much power, even if the intentions are good, that's going to inevitably cause corruption. It will, and it has." The post sees Mason asking the public to change the way the Internet works, and not to fall prey to the current status quo being maintained. While talking about this, he said, "This is the generation that will decide whether the Internet is a tool for control, or a platform for innovation and freedom," he wrote. "We have an incredible opportunity. We can shape the next one and one hundred years of human connection."The billboards, of course, work well with BitTorrent’s service and outlook. The company provides a decentralised file-sharing service that swaps bits of files between user’s computers. And the message being put out is clear: BitTorrent wants its users and artists to stay in control of their information.
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