Senate Committee Approves Internet Censorship Bill

A bill granting President Obama authority to close down Internet Service Providers (ISPs), search engines, and web sites without any type of due process was approved by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in a voice vote this week. The bill now moves to the Senate floor for a vote.

Senators Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins introduced the “Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act” after similar bills failed to pass in previous sessions, most recently the Cybersecurity Act of 2009. A matching bill is currently working it’s way through the House of Representatives. Unless American citizens organize opposition quickly, the bill could become law within a few weeks.

The act would give President Obama wide ranging powers over the Internet which he does not need and cannot possible know how to use wisely. This bill will grant him the ability to shut down all or part of the Internet and to effectively silence political critics on the only broadcast communications mechanism which is currently free from political control.

The act would grant the President the authority to force companies such as Internet Service Providers and search engines to limit service or disable connections at his command — without due process or any form of legal protection. The act gives the President the power to effectively shut down portions of the Internet for reasons that could very easily be politically inspired.

Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology criticized the bill as too loosely worded in its definition of which companies would be regulated and what they would be required to do in response to Presidential demands.

Wayne Crews, Vice President of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, explained “The way it seems to be worded, the bill could easily represent a threat to free speech.” Mr. Crews believes that the act will allow the White House to target whistle-blowing sites such as WikiLeaks.

The act would also create yet another federal bureaucracy, the National Center for Cybersecurity and Communications — when the last thing the American economy needs is even more government overhead.

The states purposes of the act make no sense from a technical viewpoint. Each Internet company employs IT security professionals who are most knowledgeable and best prepared to make decisions regarding their own infrastructure. Politicians and bureaucrats will never be able to technical competence regarding the threats to our nations information infrastructure. Phil Bond, CEO of TechAmerica, warned “If the bill passes in its current form, it will turn the Department of Homeland Security into a significant regulatory agency. Regulations like these could seriously undermine the very innovation we need to stay ahead of the bad actors and prosper as a nation.”

The President will never be able to use this power for good purposes. He will, however, easily be able to use this power to silence critics and political opponents. Thomas Jefferson wrote “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; not enlightened enough to exercise their control with wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion. Enlighten the people generally and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day.” This bill would grant the President the power to reduce the enlightenment of the American people, which can only lead to tyranny and oppression.

America’s allies are equally unimpressed with the legislation. Bjorn Landfeldt of the University of Sydney explains the results of this legislation, “By doing this they would do the terrorists the biggest favour ever because they would terrorise the rest of the world”.