Bill Would Make Tech Companies Liable For Helping Censor The Internet In Other Countries
from the what-about-censoring-in-the-US? dept
A US Congressional Representative has introduced a new bill that would make it illegal for US tech companies to assist any foreign country in attempting to censor the internet or in handing over data on users to the government except for "legitimate foreign law enforcement purposes." This is targeted at companies such as Cisco, which has supplied some of the technology used in the Great Firewall of China, as well as Yahoo! which got into some hot water for supposedly handing over information to Chinese authorities on some critics of the Chinese government.While the goal is certainly admirable, the implementation is troublesome. First, it's putting liability on tech companies for something they may not have much knowledge about (how countries are going to use the tech or whether the info is needed for "legitimate foreign law enforcement purposes."). Furthermore, where this is really hypocritical is that the law apparently does not apply to the US as well. While certainly not as bad as some other nations, the US has certainly requested data for questionable reasons, and has also been seen trying to censor parts of the internet at times. While I'm certainly not equating the efforts of US politicians to filter the internet with massive operations such as those seen in China, implementing this type of legislation does seem a bit hypocritical.
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Filed Under: censorship, congress, liability
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http://libregamewiki.org
The true test is if you admit that you're a hypocrite sometime.
We human errs. We make mistakes. We don't know certain things. Our logics make a leap of faith. Etc.
It would be hard for anybody, even if somebody with very high integrity to maintain this level of non-hypocritical behaviors.
However, this doesn't change the fact that I am continuously disappointed by our government and the populace who employ them in the first place. People's apathy for freedom scares me the most. This indicates the level of wisdom that our government and the people have.
Rather than assuming that all our politicians are corrupt, I assume that they're incompetent until proven guilty of these corruption crime.
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a mistake
If only I can edit them.
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really
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I P
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* Incidentally, NORAID is probably a pretty good reason why the United States government should think twice before making unilateral value judgements. Someone might have an inconveniently long memory.
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Patently absurd.
First, the genie is out of the bottle. They already have the technology. Cisco could actively sabotage any further work they do for China, and China's "firewall" will still be as operational as ever.
Second, if Cisco can turn a buck on China's ridiculous, unworkable policies, who is the U.S. government to create their own ridiculous, unworkable policies to thwart that? That's just unAmerican.
Third, if Cisco (or any profitable company) doesn't make money, and tax revenue, for the U.S. government, they'll make it for another one. Notice how all the Internet casinos folded the instant the U.S. "outlawed" the practice?
Me neither. I wonder who those companies pay taxes to now....
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Go goverment
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internet censorship liabiliity
Might as well pass a law outlawing legislative hypocrisy for all the good it will do.
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If you censor and you know it clap your hands....
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What about weapons?
Of course, they have a stronger lobby it'll never happen.
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