The other day I saw a hilarious John Oliver video on encryption. He explains, as only Oliver can, why despite outward appearances the encryption question is not simple and one’s immediate reaction of “Of course Apple should help the government fight terrorists” is actually more nuanced than one might think.
Now The Atlantic has run a piece on the video and asks Can John Oliver Get Americans to Care About Encryption? That’s an interesting question. Maybe commedians can do what common sense and rationality have been unable to do: make the average citizen understand what’s at stake in the debates. It turns out that Oliver’s crew spent considerable effort putting the piece together and interviewed all the players.
The Oliver video is embedded in the Atlantic article so you have one stop shopping. Even if you don’t care that much about encryption, the video is amusing and worth watching for its humor. It’s nice to see main stream publications giving the matter some intelligent coverage.