Legislation Requiring Tech Industry To Report Terrorist Activity Dropped 30
itwbennett writes: John Ribeiro reports that 'the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee has dropped a provision that would have required Internet companies to report on vaguely-defined terrorist activity on their platforms.' The draft legislation, which was unanimously passed by the Committee in July, was widely derided by the tech industry for its technical difficulty and by users for invasion of privacy.
Re: (Score:1)
"We've expanded the definition of the word terrorist to include anybody we don't like or that we want to attack."
The term "Anti-semite" also shares the same definition.
Re: (Score:2)
The bill would have been okay... (Score:1)
Re:The bill would have been okay... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Provision would never have been used anyway (Score:4, Interesting)
I doubt the provision would ever have been used anyway. Since the folks who want the data are already siphoning it, this would just let them say that they were, "just helping random ISP fulfill its responsibilities under such-and-such law" the next time their hand was caught in the cookie jar.
Absolutely incorrect (Score:3)
I doubt the provision would ever have been used anyway. Since the folks who want the data are already siphoning it
No. Mom-and-pop ISPs are already collecting all traffic from some customers and handing it over to the FBI, whether by order or request. But this was actually an attempt to turn the ISPs themselves into snitches and spies in the same way as your bank. Your bank is required to report any daily transactions over $5,000 as potential suspicious activity, especially if you appear to be "structuring" them to avoid the appearance of impropriety. So if you buy a used car and some wheels and tires for it all on the
Good (Score:1, Interesting)
We all know how well that idea would have played out. False positives as far as the eye can see. The overreach is still with us, though, and getting worse with every passing year. It seems that politicians lack common sense, and that everything is now a kneejerk reaction to emotions.
This immigration business, for example. Yeah, let's go ahead and allow hundreds of thousands of muslims into America without vetting them. My family in England can tell you what muslims do when they get their cockroach numbers u
Re: (Score:2)
BLT or death!!!!
Paperwork. The new terror. (Score:4, Insightful)
So, why did they reverse their decision to collect this data?
Probably had to do with the fact they would have to submit a 72-page federal report documenting the "terrorist" events surrounding a 14-year old boy putting clock parts in a fucking box.
After that, they realized the paperwork was worse than the threat of terrorism. In fact, paperwork became the new terrorism.
Re:Paperwork. The new terror. (Score:4, Insightful)
They don't actually have to read the paperwork, just store it. Then when someone in power decides you're an enemy, they pull out 10000 pages of paperwork filed over the years, scan it for some technical mistake or misinterpretation of some rule that was clarified after the paperwork was filed, and issue huge fines or get a warrant for your arrest. Witch hunt declared a success, political enemies punished, media cheers, totalitarian faction on Slashdot claims it's a victory for "justice". Number of non-elite, non-political-insider people actually helped: zero.
Re:Paperwork. The new terror. (Score:4, Informative)
They don't actually have to read the paperwork,
So, I put a clause in there about no brown M&Ms. Or the whole thing is null and void. I see one brown M&M, document it and their whole case will be thrown out.
Papers please, comrade ... (Score:3)
The rate at which America is jumping the shark into full on fascism is alarming.
This basically would amount to "fuck it, we don't give a damn about your rights or the Constitution ... in order to keep you safe and defend your liberty we're going full surveillance society".
You should be very afraid of lawmakers pushing this kind of stuff ... because they're openly attempting to destroy pretty much everything the US has historically claimed to stand for.
Don't these people take an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution? Because you can't defend it by ignoring it.
Re: (Score:2)
There are way too many people who think that the only way to win against "terrorists who want to destroy our democracy" is to destroy our democracy ourselves. I'll grant that this would stop terrorists from being able to destroy our democracy (because we destroyed it first), but I wouldn't call it winning. Not knee-jerk reacting in fear of every possible shadow would be winning since terrorists - by definition - want to cause fear in their enemies. If we shrugged our shoulders at them, took some small, c
No, this is not good enough. (Score:2, Informative)
Why is one single member of the United States Senate Intelligence Committee voting in favor of this legislation, let alone unanimously?
There is no circumstance in which a free citizen, not having signed any contract, should be required to report anything whatsoever to his government. My family was brought up under a dictatorship, and the reason that people were so successfully terrorised (i.e. felt fear and anticipated punishment) everywhere was not because there was a policeman on every street corner, in e
I guarantee... (Score:1)
Stupid regulations (Score:2)
Stupid regulations applied to your industry ... bad. Stupid regulations applied to someone else's industry ... SENSIBLE. Of course those other guys in that other industry that we don't understand need to be regulated.