John McCain's War on Blogs, and us.

[shance]

Guess its all the pesky truth being covered up by the Media Industrial complex he doesn't want to be revealed to us peasants. So the Rhinestone Cowboy declares war on the blogosphere and us as a citizenry.


"John McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more “on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts.” When he introduced his legislation to the Senate, McCain offered no evidence that children are being victimized by people who post comments on blogs.

McCain’s legislation could deal a serious blow to the blogosphere. Lacking resources to police their sites, many individual blogs may have to shut down open discussion.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/13/mccain-war-on-blogs/

[bushmeister0]

1. Nex thing you know he'll want to send all the bloggers to Iraq!

[sweetheart]

2. so mccain wants his speech official, he can't handle the heat

The internet can cook up quite a flame. Any politician who's felt it knows the lash of
those tongues of fire, and has a plan to put it down... what fear the unfettered opinion
of the masses in the face of fat warmongers, what fear ye little man, except the truth.

If he was doing an honest job, he would embrace free speech. That all of them are against
the free speech, speaks to the dishonesty.

[villager]

3. post illegal images on *every* rightwing blog if this goes through

Though I'm counting on a Dem congress to "stop the insanity" viz. bills like this...

[enough]

4. K&R

[thingfisher]

5. Does anyone think that the internet will remain as free as it has been?

The tools of control are already in place. In China, Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco and Google have all complied totally with the governments censoship laws and have even provided information that has led to the arrests of people who have posted "forbidden information".
If you Google Tianamen Square in America you will find a lot of information about the 1989 protests and murders that occurred. In China you willl get tourist information about the physical place period.

I tend to think (does anyone believe that our MSM is uncensored?)that the state will always attempt to utilize available technology to control information for its own purposes. In America it may take a bit longer for the desired result to be implemented but we are seeing a steady attempt to create a perception that the net needs to be further regulated to protect our nation from terrorists, child predators and unruly bloggers.

This great tool for unfettered exchange of information should be kept as free and open as possible. It has been a god send during these past 6 years, showing light on stories that otherwise would never have impacted the collective brain.

Corporate interest will probably be the main deterrent to openess as the access to the net will become more expensive and exclusive to those who can't afford the high speed connection that is becoming increasingly necessary to utilize all the features that are now available.

[shance]

6. Like Democracy, our freedoms are dependent on our participation

so goes and/or stays with the Internet.