Countries Are Hiding Censorship in 'Cybercrime' Laws

0:00This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing and awareable. So your vital zap, now with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Here are the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later require based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026. Visit apple.com slash Apple Watch Series 12. So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom

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2:03Because you don't simply step into the season. You create it layer by layer until it finally feels like fall. Find fall your way at Ross. What seems like the most minor passing political comment can destroy someone's life. And that's what these kinds of bills, these kinds of laws will create. Just allow governments to destroy a person. They're freedom, they're finances. It's a shocking amount of control. Do you want to be hacked? Do I want to be hacked? Does anyone want to be hacked? No, absolutely not. It feels like the entire internet is a wash and scams lately. So it's no surprise that people around the world are getting on board with a multinational effort to crack down on cybercrime. Governments around the world are passing more and more laws essentially designed to crack down on hacking, fishing, et cetera. But buried inside some of this sweeping cybercrime legislation are heavy handed restrictions on speech, anonymity, adult content, satire, and even any information that governments deemed inaccurate.

3:03And now a new United Nations treaty could make it even easier for countries to enforce these types of laws outside of their own borders. The result could be a fully global infrastructure for online censorship all passed under the banner of fighting crime online. Sarah McLaughlin is a senior scholar of global expression at the foundation for individual rights and expression. She's been reporting on all of this and she recently wrote an excellent piece about how more and more countries are hiding censorship laws in cybercrime bills. Hi, Sarah, welcome. Hey, thanks for having me. So to start off, I kind of want to help people understand what is this UN convention against cybercrime? How would you describe it? Yeah, so I think most people would look at it and they would say, yeah, we absolutely need to be doing something about cybercrime. I think probably the only people that like fishing and hacking are the people who are doing the fishing and hacking. So most people are very supportive of the idea that we need more cooperation to fight these things because yes, it is notoriously difficult to crack down on this kind of crime that happens

4:04on the internet across borders. So yes, step one, sounds great. But here's the problem. What the cybercrime convention actually will do is so much broader than what you and I and the average person would think of a cybercrime. It is not remotely limited to things like fishing or hacking. The way the cybercrime treaty defines what it plans to target is serious crime that is punishable by four or more years in prison. Imagine how broad that is. There are literally billions of people on Earth right now who can go to prison for peacefully expressing themselves on the internet or off for four or more years. So that is the real risk of this treaty that it will not just help countries take down hackers but it actually will have unfree countries assist each other and perhaps even enlist free countries in cracking down on peaceful expression on the internet. And I think this is a real severe threat and there are more cybercrime bills popping up that I think help demonstrate why this is such a risky space and why it's only gonna get riskier.

5:05I mean, as you said, fighting cybercrime is noble. I feel like this is how all the worst speech restrictions happen. We're gonna protect kids. Yes, of course, and who doesn't want that. But I kind of went back up and talk about how this even came to be. What is the origin of this treaty? How did this all sort of originate? Yeah, so going back to 2001, there's something called the Budapest Convention which a number of countries in Europe look to to address things like cybercrime. But it's not so much broader than Europe. 2019 is when Russia, China, and Iran really started pushing for UN action on this front. This is kind of the thing that I find especially fascinating which I think you can look at a lot of different issues with internet censorship right now. And it's the ways that freer democratic nations are kind of being pulled into these internet censorship campaigns. And they think that they're doing something good and noble but really they're kind of helping to assist really unfree countries advance really restrictive internet regulations. And I think this is another one of those examples.

6:06So you have countries like France, the UK, Canada, look at this and say, they've got a point we do need greater collaboration. 2024 is when we saw what it was really going to look like. And then 2025 late last year is when states started signing on. And so now we have dozens of countries that have signed on. What does this cybercrime treaty look like that all these countries are signing onto? How does it tackle quote unquote cybercrime? The point of it is to increase collaboration between countries and to say you have a criminal that's operating in your country. You have servers in your country. A company is located in another country that they're using. So what can we do together to make sure we're information sharing? What it is is fundamentally information and data sharing. Imagine if you have Thailand saying there are people that are engaging in criminal speech on meta. Thailand I picked as an example because you have people that have been sentenced to I'm not exaggerating decades in prison for Les Majes de, which is insults to the monarchy. And so a lot of people might look at that and say, you know,

7:08no details whatsoever. Okay, so Thailand says there are cybercriminals in their country. They don't know who those people are, who their connections are exactly what they're doing when the criminal activity took place. And so the authorities go to US officials and they say, there's information that meta is storing about these criminals in our country. Can you hand it over? And if it's something like fishing or hacking, maybe that's not so concerning to many people. But in this example of Thailand, perhaps it's people who have just been criticizing the king of their country. That's the real risk here. What's even more concerning is that they can even say to a country that they are asking to compel tech companies to hand over information on to say, do it confidentially. And so all of this could be happening where the companies could be told they need to keep silent about it. And that the people who are the targets of these investigations might not be informed that it's happening. Now, to be clear, the US has not signed on to this treaty yet. They were initially going to,

8:09but they've expressed some concerns thankfully, but they still could in the future. And so there's a lot of levels of secrecy here of piercing anonymity that might be happening. And all of it's so concerning. And that's why it's so important that these treaties not be so broad and so absurdly written that even basic political speech could fall under the parameters of it. And there will be some people who will say, there are human rights protections in the treaty. You don't need to worry about it. It's an exaggeration. But there have been a number of civil liberties and human rights groups that have looked at this and said those protections are not nearly strong enough. A lot of it ultimately differs to local law on these protections. And again, what's the problem? Local. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it.

9:10Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing and awareable. So your vitals app, now with heart rate variability, can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Here are the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described it for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later required, based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026, visit apple.com slash Apple Watch Series 12. So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom with 125 of the best deals up to 65% off in stores and online. We're talking incredible savings on brands you love like Vince, Sam Edelman, Ragnbonne, All Saints and more. They're only here while supplies last. So shop today, go into Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts,

10:10shop new arrivals first and more, plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. Push your limits, train with precision, see the results. At Equinox, that type performance loving. Everything you need to lock in and unlock your potential at Equinox. Start today at equinox.com. Cool. Also, I think we see that these companies will happily over comply with any regulation or treaty or agreement, especially companies like meta. We see them censoring speech to operate in places like Turkey or other more authoritarian countries, where they'll just turn over data or they'll restrict information in order to continue to operate and basically have a sort of friendly regulatory environment in that country. So it doesn't seem like there's anyone in this sort of equation that would stand up for free speech. It's not the tech companies. It's certainly not Thailand or whatever. And increasingly, it seems to not be America. So what are some of the countries that have signed on to this treaty?

11:11Is it only true authoritarian countries? Are we only talking like China, Russia, Iran, et cetera? Or have more sort of democratic leaning countries gotten on board with this idea? No, it is pretty broad across the spectrum of fully free to authoritarian. Canada signed on this summer. UK, France, many democratic nations outside of the US have signed on. But obviously, the far end of the other spectrum, China, Russia, these countries are all involved too. So that's one of my fears. So of course, France might get a request to hand over data about a political dissident. And they might say, no, we have laws protecting that kind of speech here. We're not going to engage them. And I hope that will certainly be the case. But I'm sure some of the things might go through the radar. I mean, we also have President Macron of France praising the UAE's speech restrictions. It feels like a lot of these countries, and you mentioned the UK as well, are actually backsliding quite significantly on free speech. They don't seem committed to protecting it at all. Yeah, and the UK is an incredible example

12:13because we have how many people being arrested for social media posts, over 12,000 people arrested for speech just last year. And then we have people who are holding signs in public, say, I oppose genocide, I support Palestine action, being hit with terror charges. So again, yeah, it's a valid question. These countries, of course, do have some degree of protections for political speech. But how strong are those protections still these days and how much can we trust them? That is certainly a question that's up in the air. And again, makes it this even more concerning to me because we have countries that are going to want to be encouraging democratic states to backslide even more than they already are as well. I feel like everyone is familiar with the, like, at least if they listen to my podcast, they know that like this idea of protecting children is complete BS and it's sort of a Trojan horse into a lot of censorship stuff. I think a lot of people might not realize that cybercrime is also something that is being used to kind of Trojan horse speech restrictions. And you give a bunch of examples

13:13that I want to walk through in your piece in some countries and sort of talk about how cybercrime legislation is evolving. So the first one that you bring up is Malaysia's cybercrimes bill in 2026. Can you talk about this bill? What does it do and how does it operate? This bill, it does a number of things. And again, you're going to have cybercrime pills that do include actual things that we would recognize as cybercrime and then say, let's sneak in a few more things that most people would see as just political expression. And so Malaysia's bill is concerning because it's one that is targeting, you know, it's ultimately going to be AI generated speech about people. And there have been critics that have looked at and said, this is just going to target satire and art. And that's the problem with a lot of these things that are targeting AI generated expression. A lot of it is just hysterical works a political speech. And so this bill, if there's possibility for up to seven years in prison, one thing that I was flagging when I wrote this piece, all of the examples of these cybercrime bills that are worrying me are just from 2026.

14:16Imagine a, what kind of other cybercrime bills we're going to get in the future that are going to be swept into this treaty. And B, I think there's a chance that this treaty could even encourage countries to pass harsher restrictions on speech. Because if you want this treaty to apply to the crime you're looking at, it needs to be punishable by four more years in prison. So there's a chance we are incentivizing harsher punishments of internet speech. So countries can get it wrapped up in this treaty. It's really one of the many reasons why this treaty was not well thought out. If you're watching this video and you like my work, please support me on Patreon via the link below or by a paid subscription to my tech and online culture newsletter at usermag.co. That's usermag.co. I don't have any long-term brand partnerships and a lot of my content is effectively demonetized. I've lost major brand deals for speaking out on certain issues and for challenging power. As you can imagine, advertisers are not exactly eager to work with somebody who covers a lot of the topics that I cover and talks about the things that I talk about. These videos I make are entirely funded by you

15:18and I can't continue to make them without your support. So if you get any value out of the videos that I create and you want me to be able to create more, please support me on Patreon or substack via the links below. On Patreon, I do bonus episodes, monthly Q&A live streams, and post frequent updates about my work. My substack newsletter gives you a bi-weekly roundup of everything that I'm seeing and reading and paying attention to online. You can also get my newsletter on Patreon once again, the links to everything are below in the description. Every dollar of your support makes such a difference. In terms of Malaysia, all these regulations around AI generated content, I feel like it's very popular. A lot of the public will be like, why can't we ban this stuff? I just covered this Minnesota law that's supposed to be on AI generated intimate content and you talk about this idea as well what the bill has this section in Malaysia on intimate imagery. And I think what people don't realize is like, I mean, I wrote about this, but this viral AI generated video of Donald Trump in a sumo wrestling outfit would be considered intimate imagery under the speech restrictions. It's just like a lot of people,

16:19they have an idea in their head of what intimate imagery is and what that would be, please. And when there are no satire carveouts and when there's no other restrictions, like we also know how these laws will be used and it seems like they're writing them so broadly so as to punish any of this stuff. And the fact that you can go to prison for seven years or five years or four years even is, I mean, these are really harsh punishments for content, potentially satirical content or political content. Yeah, and I mean, this is kind of going back to the entirety of human history, people making our mocking politicians they don't like. And guess some of that is not going to be very nice, but it's kind of always been that way. And the fact that someone uses an AI tool to do so does not change very much about the nature and message of the kind of speech they're trying to engage in. And so just ramming in the idea that it's AI generated does not change fundamentally what the speech is about. Next I want to dive into Nambia's cybercrime bill, also 2026, as you said, it's, they're all coming so quickly. This one seems really concerning

17:20because it has sort of this language around cyberbullying. What does Nambia's cybercrime bill include? Yes, so people love to throw around the term cyberbullying. No one likes to define what that actually means. But in practice, what cyberbullying often is used for and it's the same as fake news, as misinformation, it's protecting powerful people who don't like what has been said about them on the internet. And I think there's a reason why these things are very often not particularly well-defined. And it's because the broader it is, the more you can use it to just to punish government critics. You cyberbullied the president off to prison. And so I think that one might be a decade in prison. Yeah, you wrote that basically if you are convicted of cyberbullying, which is literally anything, just criticizing the government or criticizing, I guess, the, you know, officials, that is potentially 10 years in jail. You also write that failure to moderate undesirable content that is quote unquote inaccurate or misleading the public, which of course the government is going to decide, is punishable up to five years.

18:21And this is so crazy too, is use of computer systems, you write to publish adult material deemed obscene, can net up to 15 years. And we see how some of these more authoritarian countries define obscene content. It's kind of anything that they don't like. Yeah, and so, you know, the idea with cyberbullying, I really think that there's some fascinating trend going on, where you just slap cyber in front of an existing word, and it's somehow more serious. It's more of a threat. I actually was just reading a case today from Thailand where there was a woman convicted for Les Majester, she criticized the king in a video. And because she posted on Facebook, there were additional charges because a computer system was used to engage in that speech. And that's so much of what we're seeing when it comes to expression, I think. The idea is that if it's done on or with a computer, it's somehow a more serious crime. This is even in democratic countries in Germany, for example, insulting politicians. That can be a more serious charge if it's set on the internet,

19:22just because of the way that that speech is perceived. That's just, you know, something that really hurts me about this slap cyber in front of anything, idea. But yeah, so this building, you know, undesirable content, also information, things like that. I was really fascinated when COVID was first breaking out, how many countries were using this false information, misinformation, fake news, to target people who were saying the government was not doing the right things when it comes to COVID. So many people are supportive of these things in theory. Like, yes, I went the government to act on wrong speech about flies. I mean, I wrote about this for the Washington Post, actually, the censorship around COVID. And I think a lot of people, especially on the right, were making a big fuss because, you know, maybe some of them were censored off Instagram, especially in 2020 for posting, like, we shouldn't have lockdowns or whatever. But then you saw Biden come in, decide arbitrarily that the pandemic is over and push platforms. Of course, they weren't ultimately found guilty of jaw boning, but I would argue it's quite compelling. And I wrote about this for the post.

20:23They were pressuring platforms like Twitter to remove content from scientists saying, hey, our current vaccines don't stop transmission. Hey, like actually masking works, you know, like it was both sides of the aisle were being censored based on who was in power. And it sort of scares me that neither one of them learned that lesson. And both is just sort of like, well, no, but my speech shouldn't have been censored. And it's like, when I have the power, I will use it well, trust me. Yeah. And it's just abused across the board. And it's really scary. And I'm concerned, especially, I want to get into China because you also write about this draft law that's not enacted yet, but it is China's law on cyber crime prevention and control. The human rights watch did a big analysis and full breakdown on this. But can you give an overview of what China is seeking to do under this proposed law? Yeah. So it's kind of difficult to talk about these new efforts from the Chinese government to censor speech on the internet because the extent of internet censorship is already so widespread and so severe.

21:24There's a certain point you have to wonder, how do you need more? But again, this is going to be another effort to use the idea of cyber crime, to crack down on more speech that's disrupting the online order misinformation. You know, there are those horrific floods a couple of weeks ago, last week. We're already seeing that information about that has been censored by the Chinese government. And that's how misinformation works, not just in China but in a lot of countries. Misinformation is just information that the government thinks makes it look bad. And that's the full extension of it. As you said, it's hard to imagine that China's speech restrictions could get more authoritarian, but I think this is quite disturbing. Human rights watch writes that if enacted this bill would bring together rules that govern China's telecommunication internet and banking systems under a single framework, strengthening authorities ability to trace users across basically every single platform. And the bill expands police and other authorities ability to suspend access to financial accounts and communication

22:25services and bar people from leaving the country in cybercrime related cases with basically no oversight. It's very scary and authoritarian. And I think it's like people need to remember what these offenses are. And I mean, you write this and human rights for watches report sort of says this too, but like the restrictions in this bill are around things like disrupting online order, disrupting the real name management system, disseminating false information. Like these are just highly subjective delineations that we know governments will misuse. It's almost at this point hard to imagine someone's still seeing this and not seeing a naked ploy to censor political speech. It's so obviously that that it kind of feels silly to even have conversations about it where you use the terms the government does because that's what it is. It is just a ploy to keep and further, you know, and already really severe chokehold over what people can, you know, things that even seem minor can just ruin someone's life. What seems like the most minor passing political comment

23:26can destroy someone's life. And that's what these kinds of bills, these kinds of laws will create, just allow governments to destroy a person, their freedom, their finances. It's a shocking amount of control. Yeah, you write about how South Sudan and Iraq have not yet signed onto this treaty, but they also have unveiled similar cybercrime acts. I mean, is that just more of the same of what all of these other countries are doing? Yeah, so both of those bills would again include misinformation, and false information under cybercrime. And so much of this is just governments trying to ran the idea of misinformation on the internet into cybercrime. There's not too much notable about it outside of the fact that it's another one of those efforts. But again, the prison terms are one things that I really wanted to highlight. Again, five or more years in prison under these bills for misinformation on the internet. And again, what does that qualify as a serious crime under the UN cybercrime convention? That was one of the reasons why I wanted to highlight is just how broad this conception of serious crime is,

24:29and how easily and quickly, without even us realizing or thinking about it, things like misinformation, which many cases will just be criticized in the government, suddenly our cybercrime. Yeah, what do you think is leading to this sort of like global crackdown on speech? Obviously, that's a big question, and we've seen so much of it. I've been covering so much of the child safety stuff, but reading your reporting on this, and some of the other human rights investigations into these types of laws, it seems like we are just seeing this broad based effort. Is it coordinated? Like where did it come from? Because I do see these Twitter threads online that are like the deep states finally enacting control, and I'm like, I don't think so. But like, why are so many countries getting on board with it right now? Is it just that the internet has finally democratized speech enough that these governments concerted a real threat, or is there sort of some platform evolution? What do you think is feeding this? I think there's a few different things that are happening. One, I do think there is an inherent fear across governments, whether they are authoritarian

25:30or mostly free of what the internet can do, what it can become, what it means for any average person to be able to pick up a megaphone and reach millions of people. I think that is a level of power that human beings have not had for almost the entirety of human history, the idea that one person can suddenly reach millions. So I think there is an inherent fear about that. But I think what we have working at the same time is that we have just a lot of people who aren't in power, but who are wary about what happens on the internet and are so fearful about the bad things on the internet, which I think most of us would agree definitely exists. There are things like fishing and hacking and threats and child exploitation, but there are so fearful of those things that they're kind of abandoning caution and logic and pursuing restrictions that they don't fully understand the consequences of and how difficult it will be to dismantle.

26:31These kinds of regulations and restrictions once they're up and how impossible it might be for us to rebuild any sense of anonymity once these things are in place. I think honestly the average person doesn't think about it. They don't think about what it means to want to be able to speak anonymously sometimes to ask an embarrassing medical question on the internet to talk about abuse. They don't think about how they need anonymity for that. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing and awareable. So your vitals app now with heart rate variability

27:33can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Here's the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described it for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later require based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026. Visit apple.com slash Apple Watch Series 12. So good, so good, so good. Nordstrom Rack is celebrating 125 years of Nordstrom with 125 of the best deals up to 65% off in stores and online. We're talking incredible savings on brands you love, like Vince, Sam Edelman, Rack and Bone, all Saints and more. They're only here while supplies last. So shop today. Join the Nordy Club to unlock exclusive discounts. Shop new arrivals first and more plus buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. Push your limits, train with precision, see the results. At equinox, that's high performance loving. Iconic spaces that inspire personal training backed by real data, unlimited group fitness classes

28:34from yoga and Pilates to strength and conditioning. Elevate your post performance ritual with sauna's, steam rooms, cold plunges and more. Everything you need to lock in and unlock your potential at equinox. Start today at equinox.com. Yeah, and I mean, I've talked about this so much on my channel. I feel like a broken record, but even if you don't think you would engage in anonymous speech, I think everyone wants anonymous access to information. And you have to remember that that speech right goes both ways where it's like, you cannot have the right to receive information anonymously without the right to also speak anonymous. We need these protections and once you eradicate that layer of sort of data privacy and there is no more anonymity, you also can't read things anonymously, which is what I think a lot of people increasingly want to do. It's really concerning and I want people to kind of wake up and like you said, I think there's some well-meaning people, maybe we're giving them too much credit that get on board with these ideas because they hate bad information online. You know, like especially I worked obviously

29:35and I still write for mainstream media orags, like they're very concerned with this sort of thing. But the solutions are so heavy handed and so disturbing and I think anytime we have these really authoritarian countries like leading the way on it as well, I think we should be asking questions. And I have to do this disclosure every time because my audience is gonna be yelling at me again about China because they don't agree with me on China. But it's like, yes, it's amazing that they have these great grocery stores and housing and like you can look at other countries and say like there are beautiful things about these cultures or certain countries. That does not mean we should seek to replicate their internet censorship regimes. That is not the reason why they have certain things. So don't jump down my throat, please too much about the China stuff to everyone listening. I guess like where do you see this going and how close is the US too potentially signing on to something like this? To my knowledge, the US made clear that they don't plan to sign on at this current moment. So I was heartened by that especially since a year ago, this time of year ago, they were planning to do so. Right now we have dozens of countries that have signed the treaty and so far we have three that have actually ratified it.

30:38So once I believe it's 40 nations ratify it, 90 days after it will be in effect. So we have a little bit of time before this treaty is actually in effect, but we're on our way there and I hate to be such a doomer about these things. But what I see in the future is more bad cybercrime bills. I see more countries seeing this as an avenue to say, hey, maybe nobody will pay too much attention to the fact that we want to censor our critics if we just call it cybercrime. And so, A, they'll be encouraged to craft more bad cybercrime bills. And B, I think they'll be encouraged to enact harsher penalties than maybe they would have done otherwise. So they can ensure that under the obligations of the treaty, they might be able to go to other countries and seek their assistance in gathering evidence on these criminals. That is unfortunately where I think we're headed here. But this isn't so many different avenues right now. Cybercrime age verification. I just think we're kind of heading towards that same direction. And it's going to require people recognizing where we're going

31:43before we can stop any of this because I don't think it's kind of broken through yet. Exactly. I think it's hard again because we don't have a political faction that is really defended freedom of expression. And I think we have a lot of people, you know, I was hoping the Palestine issue would help like people on the left especially wake up to this and just be like, uh oh, wait a minute, you know, and in some cases that's happened in the UK. But overall, it just seems like it's very easy to get people on board. No one wants to be hacked. When you hear the word cybercrime, it sounds scary, you know, and it's like, yeah, we do want to crack down on fishing attempts and all this stuff. It's just like making sure that the laws are written sort of narrowly enough. The treaties are written in these more targeted ways so that we don't infring on people's rights. Yeah. And obviously there's a lot going on with the public attention on flock of cameras and things like that. But I'm hoping that public consensus where people seem to be waking up, at least to the broader general idea of, hey, maybe I don't like feeling that everywhere I go, everything I do, everything I say is being watched. I'm hoping that that can actually break through into some broader awareness of, hey guys, maybe check out what's been

32:44happening on the internet censorship front if this is concerning to you. I know I was trying to figure out how to get people to understand it. I'm like, imagine a flock camera in your phone. Do you want that? No, it's like people can only understand it when it's like, they see a camera on the street and I'm like, okay, now put that, but it's on you 24, seven digitally. It's hard to even comprehend honestly the scale of what's happening. Just start selling phone cases with surveillance cameras on it. Me. Oh my God, it's true. Well, Sarah, thank you so much for joining me today. And I really appreciate all your work. I'll link your piece down in the comments below and appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks for having me. All right, that's it for this week's episode of Free Speech Friday. If you like my work, please, please, please buy a paid subscription to my substack at user mag.co. That's user mag.co or support me on Patreon via the link below. I only lose money on these videos. You guys know I basically have almost no advertisers because more to edit these videos than they bring in. So if you think reporting on these issues is important, please, every single dollar of your support makes such a difference. Again, you can support me on substack or patron.

33:45You get basically the same content on both. That's bonus content on the Q and A livestream, access to articles and more. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode of Free Speech Friday. Your heart can tell you a lot about your health. Apple Watch Series 12 measures your heart rate every five seconds with the most accurate heart rate sensing and awareable. So your vital zap now with heart rate variability can tell you when something is off. And your readiness score can let you know when to rest and when to push. Here are the story in every heartbeat with Apple Watch Series 12. The features described are for wellness purposes only and not for medical use. iPhone 11 or later require based on Apple conducted study of heart rate accuracy August 2026 visit Apple.com slash Apple Watch Series 12.

35:21Mr. President, my company for me is the explosion on our rig. On October 2nd, causing massive water displacement and triggering the tsunami. They all heat the blame on me. Tom Cruise is digger goddess into the specimen. And digger is gonna dig a top. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant. What would happen if I stopped doing it? You stole it. You freeze the deck. That's what. With great power comes great to liability. I'm not the earth then. Digger, see the dream on my heart. Only years of October 2nd, radar. Under 179 a minute without parent. This podcast is supported by Anthropic, the public benefit corporation behind Claude. Everyone's got a hard question about AI. Anthropic was built to surface those questions and share what it finds along the way because there's hope in hard questions. Ask yours at clod.ai slash Spotify and keep thinking. That's clod.ai slash Spotify. See you then.