Obama May Have His "Internet Kill Switch" To Control Internet Content
dhardy
Yesterday the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed a bill to give Obama the power to shut down the internet for national security reasons. The bill is said to put limits on what the president can do unlike the Communications Act of 1934. But the fear is that the Obama Administration has not played by the rules so far, and what prevents him from stepping out of his boundaries and shut down parts of the internet that has negative articles concerning him and the Democratic Party.
Obama has complained in the past about too much information on the internet. This could be the thing that he could use to punish those that report news about his administration and the Democratic Party. The bill still has to go before the House and Senate for a full vote before it is sent to the President for a signature.
Senator Joe Lieberman is one of the sponsors and claims that the bill actually limits the President on how long he could shut the Internet down. A maximum of 120 days is the limit and after that it would take congressional approval. One of the reasons that Lieberman proposed this bill was that China has the ability to shut down the internet. A serious flaw to Lieberman's thinking is that China is a communist country and we are not. At least not right now.
Many private and civil liberty groups sent letters about their concerns to the sponsors of the bill. Many groups complain that it is a violation of free speech to be able to cut off the internet. The bill needs to be written so that it does not infringe on privacy and free speech. It should only allow the government to shut down certain infrastructures that could be damaged in a cyberattack.
One question that comes to mind that I have is, will someone actually read this bill before it comes to a vote or will it be another Pelosi bill that has to be voted on before we can see what is in the bill? This is a scarey time in American politics.
www.xomba.com/obama_may_have_his_internet_kill_switch_control_internet_content