COVID has irrevocably changed our world and in some ways for the good: we applaud our selfless key workers and are rebuilding our sense of community. A major crisis can bring out the best in humanity.

But we should also be aware that crises, whether natural or manufactured, are also the perfect opportunity for the powers that be to effect a power grab, enacting sweeping new laws that somehow magically stay in place once the emergency is over.

Annie Machon, drawing on her former career as an MI5 intelligence officer, whistleblower, privacy and ethical tech campaigner, and drug law reform activist, will dissect the different ways that governments and corporations try to control we, the people.

In this TalkBox event, Annie will explore what freedom and liberty mean individually, digitally, and societally, and how that critical balance has been manipulated over the last 50 years with an unending series of wars on concepts: drugs, terror, whistleblowers, and the internet. And now we face the new war on COVID. This talk will be followed by a live Q&A session.

Talk starts: 8 pm
Virtual Event with Limited places.

Annie Machon was an intelligence officer for the UK's Security Service, MI5, before resigning to help blow the whistle on the crimes and incompetence of the British spies.

She is now a writer, media pundit, and international public speaker on a wide variety of geopolitical issues, including the wars on terrorism, whistleblowers, drugs, and the internet.

Annie has an MA (Hons) Classics from Cambridge University.

Website: https://anniemachon.ch/about-annie

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