Yes, really. That the government is hacking private webcams en masse is a flagrant criminal act. The collusion of purported democratic governments to do this kind of thing is a threat to the rule of law itself.

It's a very serious problem, and absurd, over-the-top exaggeration doesn't help.

Like when people say, "Working at McDonald's is slavery!" No, it isn't. Actual slavery is a whole different level of badness. Obviously.

And along those same lines, odious though it is, government spies hacking your webcam to see your dick pics is not as bad as the government installing mandatory government cameras inside the homes of all citizens. Obviously.

So I don't think Cannataci is helping with this kind of hyperbolic statement. It could reasonably be argued that government surveillance in the UK and the US today is worse than it was in East Germany and the USSR -- and that's very alarming. The notion it's as bad as the fictional dystopia of 1984 is absurd and unhelpful.

You realize that article by Kim Dale is satire, right?