This sounds like FUD, and the more people believe it the closer it comes to being realized. It has been increasing lately. Some great times to push for new rules/censorship for the internet in the name of safety I assume.
The recent episode of Silicon Valley was so typical of my short stay there of the collective mindset (#Tethics) in the Valley, which was just a summer; my family is actually from San Jose (multi-generational), but they have since divested and left to the South (where I'm from) for good because of the BS politics and police state that emerged from what was once a really awesome culture in the late 60-80s and less so but still decent mid to late 90s.
I personally moved to Boulder and rode a decent wave, but to be honest with Google coming here and a lot of its cohort following in masse with the large campus it feels about the same now.