Freedom of Thought in the Age of Technology

Mr. Michael Pastine, a special international guest, is the Chief Information Officer at SUNY Oswego and also a visiting professor at Fordham University. Mr. Pastine has decades of extensive experience in information technology and higher education. He deeply understands the importance of truth, transparency, and freedom of thought in the digital age.

On August 10, 2025, Michael Pastine attended a gathering held by the Global Center for Quitting the CCP in New York, celebrating 450 million people who have withdrawn from the Chinese Communist Party, its Youth League, and Young Pioneers. He shared his unique insights on technology — that it should empower people, and should never become a tool for control or enslavement. The full text of Michael Pastine’s speech is as follows:

Freedom of Thought in the Age of Technology
Good morning everybody. It is a great honor to join you today at this powerful rally. A moment of truth, a moment of courage, and a moment of clarity in a world often clouded by propaganda and digital manipulation. As someone who has spent his career in information technology in higher education, I know first hand the information is power, and when that power is suppressed, when truth is distorted, the very foundation of human freedom is threatened. That's why they censor the Internet, monitor its citizens, rewrite history and punish thoughts. In the digital age, the methods have evolved, but the goal remains the same. Control minds by controlling information. But truth has a power all on its own. Today we celebrate over 450 million brave individuals who have made the conscious decision to quit the CCP and its affiliate organizations. Each one of them has broken through the wall of lies. Each one is a digital and spiritual defector walking away from a system that values power over people and control over conscience. We also celebrate the end of the petition, now signed by about 5 million people across the globe. These are not just signatures, they are voices. They are data points in a moral movement that technology cannot suppress. As an educator, I teach my students that ethics, truth and freedom are not optional in the digital world. They are essential. A regime that fears information, senses its history, and monitors its people is not strong. It is weak. Let this rally remind us that freedom of thought is humanity's most powerful firewall. As long as people choose truth, no algorithm, no surveillance system, no dictatorship can win. Thank you. And may the flame of freedom continue to burn in China, in America, in every corner of the digital world. Thank you. Well, why I'm here? Information basically on the Internet, having friends that are involved, asking me to get involved and learning what I can as much as I can about the about the movement. What did anything move you? What made you want to support it? Why are you passionate about this movement? I'm passionate about the the sharing of information and I am passionate about the fact that when you want to control somebody, you limit their access to information, you limit their education. The more somebody knows, the more intelligent and better decisions they can make. And I realized from what I know my, my investigation of my research of what's going on other parts of the country like China, where people don't have the access to the same information. When you want to play in the, when you want to play in the same playing field, you have to have the same rules and the same information, the same skills, same knowledge for a competition. When you inhibit one of those sides, then it is not a fair, a fair playing field. Well, on technology related, I mean, I mean, look at an AI and, and whether that where that's going and the and the and the competition between our countries to stay 1 notch ahead of the other. So from what I would feel and with with with this is that with technology, technology is going to be a double edged sword in this world. You know, it's something that you can't live without, but something you have to live with. And technology will always be used to improve humans, human behavior, human actions. And being a veteran myself, I see where our technology has gone from on our military. So all of these, these areas where technology can make these, these massive improvements will affect our countries across the globe hugely. Where for government security or, or government, the military and all those implications. I'm not a fan of TikTok. I can appreciate its use. Everything has a use. I'm not, I'm not a TikTok user, but yeah, I'm always concerned with these application who owns them because everybody's in business to either have some kind of advanced playing field, whether it be I want money, we want to sell products or it's to gain knowledge.