Long before it was hip and cool, years before Facebook was ridden by scandals with Cambridge Analytica and revelations about his ingenious system to record every smallest of the members ‘ physical and mental movements, reported our new digitaliseringsminister, Nikolai Astrup, out of the community.

“I don’t want to support a business concept that gathers information about individuals in an inappropriate way,” said Astrup.

DEMONSTRATES: Comedian Sigrid Farmer Tusvik demonstrated when the new government was presented on Tuesday. Video: Ingebjørg Iversen / Dagbladet / NTB Scanpix Show more

Year 2012, and he was an mp for the Right. It seems like an eternity ago. Right enough was the deletion of a Facebook account considered as civil courage then as now. But Erna Solberg was not yet the prime minister of Norway, and in the EUROPEAN union and Norway there was a directive that the shared opinions – between those who were against removals, and those who were for security reasons. Astrup was in the first category, and thus the opposition in own party. When he signed out of Facebook in 2012, claiming he that he lived a great life before Facebook, and that he would certainly live fine without also.

held obviously not quite the prick. It may be possible to live a full life without Facebook as an individual. Even as a member of parliament can everyday life feel meaningful without an account with Zuckerberg. But when Astrup was development minister, he had to of course acquire a politikerside, where man and beast could follow his “life as development minister on Facebook, (smiley face)”.

Idealism faded towards the karrieretoppen. But more interesting than Astrups the opportunity to contribute to the huge production of Facebook videos where politicians are talking engaged on the last political meeting or kampsak, is his citation from 2012. We get a digitaliseringsminister as has the battle for privacy as a political ryggmargsrefleks.

It is not a matter of course. Stridene policy have been many and hard. Advocate for that other considerations from time to time must weigh heavier, has often won out.

While need of modernisation and agile access to data in many circumstances absolutely essential to develop services that are for the enjoyment of you and me. Pasientinformasjonen to not get astray, but we want cancer research to be able to take advantage of health to develop new treatment. We want that NAV to be able to have systems that enable the aid to case management and navigation system as intuitive as possible.

the Knowledge that there is a strong awareness around the limitations that must be set in such contexts, is basically reassuring.

It is unclear how much power Astrup get in his new job. Tasks it is natural that he will embark on, involving as a rule, also other ministries and belong thus under the other statsråders domain. Those who believe that he has gotten the job to maintain the Conservative order of strength in the government thus has a point, Astrup is a ekstrastatsråd, a good number two, in the Municipal and moderniseringsdepartementet together with municipal and moderniseringsminister Monica Mæland.

But even if ministerkollegiet swells, it is difficult to be surmaget with the thought of just this extension. Norway is in the forefront when it comes to digitization, and it is a good idea to cultivate their merit. The same job could probably have been solved with a statssekretærstilling, but a ministerposisjon provides greater weight. It only remains to see how much weight Astrup manages to enter to get to the digital modernization, and how much he manages to slow kontrollbehovet that defence and security interests at any time have when it comes to communication and data traffic going in and out of the country.

It is a battle that will cost more than to opt out of Facebook.

It is now you should consider to delete Facebook account Comment