In the wake of the SOPA/PIPA defeats, everyone seemed to take a typical slackivist approach: “OK, that’s it. We fixed the internet. HIGH FIVES!” (I mean we fixed Uganda, and boob cancer, right?)
If you know anything about the current political climate, you should have been waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Yes, the esteemed men who you have elected (let’s be real: there are so few females in Congress, it’s ridiculous.) have decided that the internet is a problem that needs to be solved. (I wonder if that was before or after most of their credit cards cleared on “Co-ed Horny House” $19.95 per month.)
Yes, instead of paying attention for the last TWENTY years as business models got disrupted, the powers that be decided that taking $$ to protect crumbling monopolies is the “way forward” instead of, you know ALLOWING THE FREE MARKET THEY LOVE SO MUCH to propagate online.
Let’s review the latest threat, CISPA:
Under CISPA, the following totally shitty things will be made possible:
- Companies could be commanded to share any of your information with the government without your foreknowledge (Amazon could have to turn over your purchase history. The Wall Street Journal might have to turn over a list of articles you read which relate to “terrorism.”)
- ISPs could, without any provocation or reason, block sites from you which they don’t like (think the Pirate Bay, but also Planned Parenthood, or WIkipedia articles on “controversial” ideas.
- The government could essentially “wiretap” your search history and use that against you.
This is some seriously scary shit, and no one should take it lying down. This is NOT a case where “if you’re not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to be worried about.”
Who determines what’s “wrong?” Is it looking up abortion information? Looking up an article on growing marijuana? Is it looking up a movie on IMDB which the Aryan Brotherhood like to watch?
The point of the internet today is that in all of these cases, I decide what’s right and what’s wrong FOR ME. You know, because I am an adult who pays taxes and goes to work every day. (Can’t a girl just google “scalp pain” in private?)
Anything sold under the guise of “security” should always be viewed with suspicion. Politicians and Police always want more power and control. It’s the public’s duty to make sure they don’t get it, because our society since 2001 is one who gives away that power much to easily, and never gets it back.
So, dear readers, if you love being able to google weird things, or read more about lifestyles you deem weird, or even just want to know if smoking banana peels was really a thing in the 60s, then you need to do whatever is within your power to stop CISPA. BoingBoing has covered a few solutions here, but the most important one is to GET POLITICALLY ACTIVE.
The phone still works, and so do letters. Get in your elected officials’ faces. Let them know what personal liberties THEY would be giving up (remember, PEOPLE work at the types of organizations which the government would be relying upon to snitch, meaning your Senator could have THEIR search history sent to a local newspaper!)
Don’t stop fighting the good fight. There’s still a GOP Majority, and they are going to keep throwing variations of this at the wall until one of them sticks. KEEP SAYING NO!