Solcial: The right to openly express one’s opinion is one of the fundamental civil freedoms of a person

Law 224-FZ, which entered into force, at one time made significant amendments to the laws “On Public Service” and “On Municipal Service”. Civil servants are now required to report on what they did on the Internet in their free time. This was expected, it was feared, but now it turns out that events are developing according to the worst of scenarios: instead of filling out a declaration, employees are literally fleeing the Internet! The law, which was not supposed to, and could not, restrict citizens in their basic rights, has become such a restriction.

And now we will understand.

Article 20.2 (Submission of information on the placement of information on the information and telecommunication network “Internet”) requires each year, by April 1, from state and municipal employees, as well as persons applying for the relevant positions, to inform their employer of all places on the Internet, where they, acting as a private individual and identifying themselves, posted any publicly available information. At the same time, the applicant for the position of an employee is obliged to submit a report for three calendar years before being hired, and employees — one year before filing a declaration.

The list of sites whose presence is subject to declaration is actually reduced to dating services and social networks: VKontakte, Odnoklassniki, Facebook, Google+, Twitter and the like. But the fact is that in recent years social networks have become the main platform for expressing opinions in private. So why did the state suddenly need to intrude into the private life of a citizen (and this, as the Constitution says, includes “out-of-service activities”)?
The answer given by the same Ministry of Labor is as simple as it is dubious: the “Internet declaration” is designed to ensure “compliance by civil servants with the rules of professional ethics.” Translating into human language, the state obviously wants to make sure that even in their free time, employees do not do things that are incompatible with the moral character of a civil servant of the Russian Federation. True, what exactly can be the criterion for such incompatibility cannot be definitely said: no corresponding explanations have been given. But commentators suggest a wide range of “misdemeanors”: from immoderate criticism of the first persons of the state and radical political allegiances to obscene images.

It is also unclear whether they will name the true reason for dismissal in the event of problems with the declared Internet activity. To be honest, this is hardly to be expected. Most likely, they will be fired with a streamlined, non-explaining wording “service inconsistency.” So, having lost his job, the employee will not even understand why he flew out!

All this makes us think that the new law is designed not so much to reveal the facts of inappropriate behavior on the Internet, but to help prevent such behavior. It seems to be an obvious conclusion, which, however, led to the fact that state and municipal employees began to massively leave social networks! To avoid misunderstandings, as they say.

The question to what extent the new law violates the constitutional rights of citizens is open. On the one hand, there is a fact of interference in the private life of a citizen (and a civil servant, after all, is also a citizen, with all rights and freedoms!). On the other hand, the concern of the state about its image is understandable. After all, if earlier a civil servant, for example, had been seen participating in some radical political event, no one would be surprised at the question of whether he fits his position. But today it is social networks that have become the main platform for expressing opinions and social activity — and it is reasonable for the state to control this direction. Another conversation is that such control could be implemented less noticeably, without coercion and even without the involvement of the employees themselves. At the very least, this would make it possible to avoid talk of a “return to a totalitarian regime.”

The main problem is that social networks have become the main platform for expressing opinions and, whether someone wants it or not, the most popular channel of communication, including between the state and the citizen. It has long been customary to give both official and unofficial comments in social networks: there they are easiest to convey to the target audience, and there they are easiest to discuss. And more and more often it happens that it is quite difficult to draw a line between official and private: a civil servant who gives explanations on professional issues on the pages of a social network under his own name can act both as a private person and as a representative of the state.

In my opinion, there is no need to draw a line here, because such a presence of civil servants is extremely valuable in itself: as a result, the state better understands what is happening “on the ground”, and ordinary citizens get a chance to look “into the kitchen”, where socially important solutions. And the state would support and develop this mechanism! Instead, it tries to destroy it.
So is there an alternative solution? What should be the social network of the future for civil service Who could not be afraid of the consequences of being on social networks?

Decentralized, not dependent on central infrastructure. All user content must be stored in IPFS and accessible through the P2P layer.
Fake-proof accounts — encryption / signature keys, blockchain data storage.
Everything is encrypted, with no backdoors reading your private messages. You can create an anonymous account and use it however you like.

There are many attempts to make a decentralized social network. One of them — Solcial — is a decentralized social network that allows users to receive fair remuneration for their work. Solcial promotes freedom of speech by allowing users to interact without fear of being banned or censored. As the developers promise, our main goal is to create a more open, inclusive social network that promotes freedom of speech and helps citizens express their opinions in a civil way, without government interference or fear of being banned or persecuted.

So, I hope that for fans of social networks, adherents of crypto, bloggers, developers, journalists and entrepreneurs focused on a new generation of social networks with unique opportunities, an amazing and promising time is coming and everyone will appreciate Solcial and everyone will find their own niche for their opportunities. We now have technologies in our hands to make social networks more ethical and useful. And I’m very excited to be in the middle of such a deep and broad positive transformation.

#solcial #nocensorship $slcl #scout #solana #socialnetwork #privacy #freedom #decentralized #web3

Discord: https://discord.gg/2KfcwZaJYT
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/solcial
Site: https://solcial.io
@solcialofficial #web3 #solana