As reporter earlier, the Federal Government is actively monitoring social networking sites.  Further to that trend, readers have reported on a new Facebook Page run by DHS.  The page allows you to see certain Facebook activities of you and your friends, and appears to do so regardless of how restrictive your privacy settings are.   Mention the DHS or any of dozens of other suspicious words in your comments, link to a story or video they’re interested in or take other actions which the government deems questionable?  That information is collected and sent to the government, and then displayed for others to see.  It is for reasons such as this that we don’t have a Facebook “like” button on this site. (See, Don’t Follow Us Here.)

The purpose of their Facebook Page is not clear, but the function of it is: what you say and do online is being watched, collected, cataloged and permanently stored by your government.  And, it is this function of surveillance which is objectionable as it becomes a mechanism of control.  Even if it is not used in conjunction with the powers of indefinite detention of the NDAA – and perhaps that day will come — the full-time monitoring of the population by the surveillance state creates a chilling effect and only serves to stifle political participation in the public sphere thereby deterring political change.  Accordingly, the surveillance state serves not to protect the population at large, but only to serve the interests of the entrenched power structure.