A Comfortable Silence

AnoniCloud is a personal cloud storage service built on three core values: anonymity, inviolability, and integrity. These principles embody our vision of freedom: the freedom of thought and the freedom to pursue one’s passions. We believe that every individual should be free to fulfil themselves in harmony with others and the surrounding nature.

A fundamental aspect of freedom is the right to access free and impartial information, enabling individuals to form their own opinions and preferences independently, with all the necessary elements at their disposal.

Last week, Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested by the French authorities on charges that we consider groundless. In our view, such accusations could be levelled against anyone producing tools like personal computers, phones, or even kitchen knives, as these can also be used for purposes contrary to Natural Law.

A few days ago, X was blocked across Brazil to combat so-called “fake news”, which increasingly seems to resemble “news unpalatable to the system”. According to the Associated Press, anyone attempting to access X using a VPN could face fines of up to €8,000 per day. We can’t help but wonder what could be so dreadful on X and Telegram to justify such drastic measures by the authorities. A quote attributed to Kamala Harris, a Democratic candidate in the US elections, provides an answer: “They are speaking directly to millions and millions of people with no oversight or regulation.”

We believe that both Telegram and X (formerly known as Twitter) are powerful and valuable communication tools. It is not the job of communication service providers to exercise censorship unless it is expressly requested by the users themselves. Would it seem acceptable to you if a State, any State, decided which phone calls you could receive on your telephone?

We disapprove of both these actions, which we consider intimidating and unjustified.

We invite our readers to reflect on who has taken a stand against these dystopian trends and on those who, while proclaiming themselves defenders of human freedoms, have preferred to remain silent.

In the third canto of the Divine Comedy, Dante places those who, in times of crisis, did not take a stand — defined as “the indifferent” — in the Ante-Inferno, a place preceding Hell itself. The indifferent are punished because, during their lives, they aligned themselves neither with good nor with evil. Dante considers them unworthy of the joys of Paradise or the pains of Hell. Their punishment consists of running naked behind a banner, stung by wasps and hornets, with their blood and tears sucked by worms.

And I, who had my head with horror bound,
Said: "Master, what is this which now I hear?
What folk is this, which seems by pain so vanquished?"

And he to me: "This miserable mode
Maintain the melancholy souls of those
Who lived withouten infamy or praise.

Commingled are they with that caitiff choir
Of Angels, who have not rebellious been,
Nor faithful were to God, but were for self.

The heavens expelled them, not to be less fair;
Nor them the nethermore abyss receives,
For glory none the damned would have from them."

And I: "O Master, what so grievous is
To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"
He answered: "I will tell thee very briefly.

These have no longer any hope of death;
And this blind life of theirs is so debased,
They envious are of every other fate.

No fame of them the world permits to be;
Misericord and Justice both disdain them.
Let us not speak of them, but look, and pass."

And I, who looked again, beheld a banner,
Which, whirling round, ran on so rapidly,
That of all pause it seemed to me indignant;

And after it there came so long a train
Of people, that I ne'er would have believed
That ever Death so many had undone.

When some among them I had recognized,
I looked, and I beheld the shade of him
Who made through cowardice the great refusal.

Forthwith I comprehended, and was certain,
That this the sect was of the caitiff wretches
Hateful to God and to his enemies.

These miscreants, who never were alive,
Were naked, and were stung exceedingly
By gadflies and by hornets that were there.

These did their faces irrigate with blood.
Which, with their tears commingled, at their feet
By the disgusting worms was gathered up.

Credits:
Featured image: Priamo della Quercia – Canto terzo, Inferno;
Verse: Dante Alighieri, Inferno, triplets from 24 to 69, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow – Source: Wikisource.