Few months ago we have the greatest enemy of the internet, SOPA bill by the US lawmakers with the aim of censoring the internet for us. They want to keep track of what we’re doing; they want to make sure that they make internet government of United States of America’s birth right. But, thank God that the bill died-down halfway when the world record blackout occurred (the World Wide Web went offline). That time, every business setups and each blogger whose business or company depends on freedom of speech went offline to show the house reps. that they do not support the bill. And at the end, our prayers were answered.
Even at that time, the popular domain name registrant company, Godaddy supported the bill, the move that cost the company millions of user’s trust afterward because it is like the company is working against their customers’ businesses –majority of user’s signup rate dropped because of that conspiracy move by the company.
However, when the SOPA bill failed, another bill was proposed called, PIPA bill which was aimed at censoring the web as well, though, the way it was package is different from how the SOPA bill was presented.
It doesn’t stop there, another bill again, its name is CISPA!
An ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) was introduced again! They also think of ways to make sure that they make the web uneasy for the world nations by introducing new censorship-like rules that would make the web and the world a hell on earth for us. Though, ACTA was designed in a way that people would think it was only aimed at fighting counterfeit and cyber threats but it was more than that as well. Thank God the US government hasn’t signed the bill because if they’ve signed it, the situation would have become harder for people.
And now, CISPA bill, and what does it really means?
CISPA bill is another treaty and a United States projected law introduce to the house on November 30, 2011 by the United States Representative, Michael Rogers and other 29 co-sponsors. This bill if finally passed into law, it will allow the government and privately owned companies to share your information in an effort to combat the rising cyber threats. Though, it looks simpler than SOPA, PIPA and ACTA but the truth is it is even worse. Unlike SOPA and PIPA that was withdrawn due to large protests by people, CISPA bill is enjoying supports from Facebook and Microsoft – the supports which the previous bills never had. And the danger of this bill is that the bill has attracted more than 100 co-sponsors already which means, the internet is going to be politicized soon if you and merefuses to take the right steps required by crying out.
I’m not an American…nothing concerns me 🙂
I’m afraid because you still believe this bill is for the U.S. citizens alone, nope! Though, it is a US bill but the true fact is that it will not affect the American people’s alone but the rest of the world. In a report published on EFF’s blog post, it reads thus:
“The idea is to facilitate detection of and defense against a serious cyber threat, but the definitions in the bill go well beyond that. The language is so broad it could be used as a blunt instrument to attack websites like The Pirate Bay or WikiLeaks.”
The new internet enemy is called CISPA and you need to oppose the bill if you use the internet because it will allow monitoring, censorship and revision of ANY online communication made by me or you, which mean there’s wouldn’t be any online privacy anywhere anymore after the bill has been approved.
To my knowledge, the bill is proposed to make it easier for them to fight cyber crimes but the case seems to be different because there’s something more than that in the bill.
This is a bill proposed to make the web uneasy for us – you and me. We need to fight against CISPA right now or we forget the web for these people who aren’t ready to make the world a better place to live in like how Michael Jackson sang in his album, Heal the World.
How to STOP CISPA!
This is the best time for us to save the internet from the US government and claim our rights by disallowing them to spy on everything we do even without spy warrant or any relevant warrants.
Join the hashtag on twitter to cry out against the bill and let the world hear you or you can join the protest on Avaaz website because I think there wouldn’t be any blackout this time.
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I am not sure yet about SOPA and other laws.. Ok they are against anonymity and the free speech of the net etc. But people need protection from hackers, artists need protection from pirates.. I hope they won’t limit the Internet in that scale that it becomes annoying..
Say No To CISPA. Thanks TAL for taking this initiative here.
You’re welcome Puneet. Please spread the message
Good story – whilst everyone concentrated on SOPA/PIPA, this new act has been progressing under the radar. Sadly it enjoys support from major companies who are keen not to be sued by users if they ‘co-operate’ with the government by handing over user data.
Facebook say “The concern is that companies will share sensitive personal information with the government in the name of protecting cybersecurity. Facebook has no intention of doing this”. The key word is ‘intention’. The fact is that once this power is in place it WILL be abused, it always is… Who would have any confidence in companies like Facebook and Google looking after our privacy? They have shown in the past that user’s privacy is well down their agenda.