Today September 11, 2023 is the 22nd anniversary of the tragedy of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in the United States. For the Millennial generation and below, the 9/11 attack is an incident that leaves a huge impact on the memory while growing up.
There were significant changes in our daily lives before and after three commercial planes were used as weapons of destruction that claimed 2996 lives. Although almost a quarter of a century has passed, the impact of the 9/11 attacks can still be seen today.
Enhanced Airport Security System.
Before 9/11 the security system at the airport was strict but more relaxed. It is normal to arrive an hour early in the light field as the process of entering luggage and going through security can be done quickly.
Post 9/11 getting to the airport three hours early has become the norm. The process of checking the body and luggage at the entrance has become more and more strict and can take almost more than an hour. If we go to the United States, it is customary to be "randomly selected" to be checked more carefully by agents of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Told to go to the secondary screening room before private parts of the body are held in public. The process that 20 years ago was only carried out by individuals who were truly suspected of being criminals is now carried out by anyone whose skin is not white and whose name is Muslim.
Pre 9/11 removing belts, watches, removing wallets and scanning electronic equipment was practically rare. Now at airports like Changi there are conveyor machines that move items that need to be scanned more efficiently as well as explosives sniffing machines for overseas flights. It has been 12 years since Osama Bin Laden was killed by SEAL Team 6 but the world is still haunted by him until now.
E2EE Monitoring And Identification Normalization
The monitoring of daily life by the authorities is multiplied in almost all countries, especially the United States. In this "Freest Country in the World", the Patriot Act was enacted less than two months after the attack and remains in place until 2020. It gives the government the power to spy on citizens for security reasons. With this great power, the rights of US citizens, especially Muslims, have been violated like Singapore by the sword.
Monitor CCTV
This indirectly increases people's fear that they are being watched by Big Brother exactly like Orwell's novel. Action taken by application and device manufacturers is to tighten device security systems. The use of E2EE end-to-end encryption systems increased post-9/11 in tandem with on-device data encryption systems. Authorities hate both of these systems enough that the UK wants to enforce a bill that prevents security vulnerabilities from being patched if they are used by authorities to spy on certain individuals.
For "security" reasons, the FBI also once forced Apple to provide access to the iPhone belonging to the suspect of the terrorist attack in San Bernadino. Apple refused to cooperate until the FBI used the services of a hacking company to access devices without the owner's permission. Starting with the premise of preventing "terrorists", the governments of several other countries have been found to be using spying software such as PEGASUS to violate the basic rights of political enemies, NGO members, activists, and journalists. All of this can be traced back to the 9/11 attacks.
The Popularity of Conspiracy Theories Explodes
Conspiracy theory is a subgenre that used to be of interest to a small number of individuals who did not want to believe the official answers given by the authorities. The Roswell UFO incident, the Moon landing, the JFK assassination, MH653, and the death of Princess Diana are among the popular conspiracy theory topics. But 9/11 became the catalyst for a new generation of conspiracy theory enthusiasts until it spread globally.
Many theorize that 9/11 was not planned by Osama Bin Laden but instead by the Illuminati who wanted to start a New World Order. The Pentagon was allegedly attacked with a missile and there are also theories that the 9/11 attackers are still alive and are CIA/Mossad agents. It was so popular that "jet fuel can't melt iron" became a fairly popular meme for a decade. The documentary Loose Change was probably the first viral video with it being shared millions of times via Limewire and Torrent.
Now every time there is a big incident, conspiracy theories about it will be spread in a short time through social media. MH370 is among the victims of strange conspiracy theories such as the plane was abducted by aliens, hijacked using a remote control device and sucked in by a sea genie. The weirder the theory that is created, the more fervently it is spread because it can be used as content to generate income on social media.
Media Values Speed Not Accuracy
The biggest change we are aware of is how the media operates post 9/11. Because the incident happened live in front of hundreds of millions of people around the world, it changed how major incidents were reported to the public. This is particularly noticeable in online media reports. People are more interested in visuals, especially videos, than in written form. Show is better than write.
The mushrooming online media also rushes to be the first to report the latest news. Journalistic ethics are pushed aside in order to get early readers. The practice of reporting first check later has become a cancer that causes the media's credibility to begin to erode.
In their eagerness to report the latest news of 9/11, some of the world's major media outlets got their reporting wrong. When the report was retracted it was used as evidence by the conspiracy theorists we mentioned earlier that the government was trying to hide the truth from the public.
This is just a small part of the impact of the 9/11 attacks on the world. The 19 individuals who carried out the attack on this day 22 years ago wanted to show that the United States is not a nation immune to attack. It is a response to American policy in the Middle East since the end of the First World War. The purpose may be to open eyes and free the world from the grip of the American-led West. But the opposite is happening with the world becoming increasingly unstable and freedoms are increasingly curtailed.