Is Social Media the New Way to Execute Power in the United States?

For our last unit of Policy we dove into the three branches of U.S. government. We looked into the legislative branch, executive, and now judicial. We looked into the supreme court and the way it functions. The people who are currently in office, and the history of the branch itself. The way that the branch used to run compared to how it does today, and has impacted the lives of many here in the U.S. This term was a bit different. It took a turn at the end of the term after the death of George Floyd which lead to protests around the U.S. and riots. This is history right in front of us. I wanted to take advantage of this moment in time, and acknowledge the way the U.S. government is choosing to take this issue into account. I specifically wanted to look into our President, Donald Trump, and what he finds more important than what is going on in the streets. Take a look to my essay below that takes a deeper dive into the way the executive branch chose to change their system after riots struck in their country compared to the U.S.

Citations:
1. Bowers, John. “Trump's Executive Order Is the Most Futile Attack on 230 Yet.” Wired, Conde Nast, www.wired.com/story/opinion-trumps-executive-order-is-the-most-futile-attack-on-230-yet/.
2. Echenique, Sebastián Piñera. “Sebastián Piñera: A New Opportunity for Chile's Future.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Dec. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/opinion/pinera-chile.html.

Imagine the feeling of being watched?

In this first unit of our humanities course, Policy, we took a deeper look into what role legislators serve in the U.S. government. Understanding different roles played in the U.S. government gives us students a better understanding of who is representing us. Who is representing our views, values, and morals when it comes to the U.S. coalition coming together and creating policy. We were able to speak with public defender Connie Jordan, who joined us last term, to learn about how policy works in our city, state, and nation as a whole. We looked into different ordinances which helped us when it came to thinking about the issues we were passionate about seeing change on within our state, and seeing the progression these ordinances are making. For this AP, we were asked to choose a topic and ordinance that goes along with it that has yet to be passed. Our goal was to construct a letter to someone in legislation who we think represents us the best in order to get this ordinance passed. We as citizens of the U.S. have the right to our opinion and getting it out in the world because that is what democracy is. Without the opinion of the people, there would be no democracy. I chose to speak on behalf of online surveillance and cyberstalking within marginalized communities. I chose this topic after looking into Assia Boundaoui´s film, The Feeling of Being Watched, which takes a closer look into the FBI stalking the largest Islamic community in Illinois, Bridgeview. During the 1990s, Operation Vulgar Betrayal was launched by the U.S. to take a closer look into this certain community in Illinois with the perception that Islamic organizations and mosques were funding terrorist groups like Hamas. Take a closer look into my AP in order to get a better understanding of the person I am and how I want to see this state improve when it comes to online surveillance.