The era of cyberwarfare
Looking back to the pages of history, when there was no introduction of technology the world experienced tragic wars like World War I and II. World war I was a large-scale military conflict and caused the downfall of four monarchies: Germany, Turkey, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Around nine million soldiers were killed, which was about 15 percent of all combatants whereas 13 million civilians died. Whereas World War II consisted of majority countries of the world including all the great powers which resulted in the formation of two opposing military alliances. These wars were fought by the means of riffles, poisonous gases, tanks, bombs, and many more weapons but today the wars are fought by the means of technology.
The Aftermath of World War II was the beginning of a new era. This was defined by the decline of all European colonial empires and the simultaneous rise of two superpowers: The Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States (USA). From space to military, technology to trade, education to innovation, USA grappled with its new role Superpower of the world. The USA is leading the world in almost every aspect but most importantly the USA made its mark in technological innovations. All the leading companies in the world are owned by the USA like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, Oracle, IBM, Tesla, Uber, and the list goes on.
Technological innovations also lead to the invention of different cybercrimes in the world. One of the most famous technology-oriented crimes is cyberwarfare; it is the use of technology to attack a nation causing comparable harm to actual warfare. ‘Cyberwarfare’ does not imply scale, protraction or violence which are typically associated with the term ‘war’. Per Wikileaks and many other sources, it has been observed that these tech weapons are being used to target the countries and stakes of a specific community or group of people.
Today, there are many notable examples of cyber warfare but I would prefer quoting one of my own experiences. These days, I came across many stories like the ones on Facebook including the removal of pro-Kashmiri freedom posts or banning the profiles of the ones supporting the Free Kashmir movement. One of my friends from Azad Kashmir is also a social activist for Kashmir’s freedom struggle; he himself mentioned with proves that Facebook has banned many accounts that support the Free Kashmir movement. Out of these, 18 Facebook accounts were owned by my friend which were banned in the last three years so he using the 19th one now. The main question that arises here is that are the ones with power allowed to do cyber warfare against the minor communities? Unfairness is unacceptable in all forms, whether it is doing cyber warfare against a powerful country or a minor community.
Unfortunately, today we can see that power is greater than ethical values.
References for war stats, Wikipedia
