Obama eyes internet regulation in the name of privacy

Obama Administration Eyes New Strategy for Policing Internet Privacy(Fox News)

Yet the administration faces significant obstacles to enacting its privacy agenda. While the Republicans who now control the House of Representatives generally support privacy, they are unlikely to support any bill to expand the enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission, GOP congressional aides say. Privacy advocates will be reluctant to back legislation that lacks enforcement and is perceived as toothless.

Here is yet another example of government putting it's nose where it doesn't belong. The opposition of regulations on the internet are NOT primarily based on the idea that competition and innovation would be stifled, but that personal responsibility would be thrown out the door in favor of a new bureaucracy that would cost billions to do what exactly?

YOU PEOPLE KNOW that you shouldn't put out information you think is sensitive. It's all about how you, as the individual, feel about the security and integrity of your personal info. Obama also has other ideas in mind regarding the internet and how privacy should be handled...It is interesting that Obama's prior pushes for internet regulation didn't have the same "protection of the regular guy" language in it.

Here's what I mean:

Internet Anonymity at Risk

This reflects the tireless effort for the state to control its population and it gives me growing concern. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." The gov't now wants everyone to acknowledge who they are on the net - voluntarily for now - to make the web a more verifiable place. There are obvious advantages to that during a time of war. However, should the capacity exist, when a gov't gets threatened by its own people for its own ineffectiveness or illegitimacy, that knowledge will no doubt be used against its own citizens. It will be like having a watermark in every flyer passed around a crowd or knowing who sent every letter through the postal system (rather than just knowing only the return address and the post office from which it was sent). This WILL be used to stifle free speech on the net, and such a system can be used to deny people access to the internet altogether.

So there ya have it folks...Which is it? Do they want to protect privacy or destroy it? I'm not sure what message the president is trying to get across here, but my guess is the end result will not be good for us. Make no mistake folks, the liberty of the internet is on it's way out...Unless, of course, we stand up and fight it.

Makes me wonder about Wikileaks. That is the type of website that could make many Americans OK with the government stepping in and regulating.

Originally posted by kalunom
Makes me wonder about Wikileaks. That is the type of website that could make many Americans OK with the government stepping in and regulating.

I see it very similarly as well. Wikileaks' fiasco is giving government the excuse to propagandize us into allowing him and the elitists in the world to control our free access to information.

reply to post by projectvxn

Just like those traitors Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr. gave ammunition to the policing bodies to further humiliate, beat and subjugate minorities..Julian must be stopped..although he fights for our rights as citizens to know what are government is doing in our name..he is just making it worse, we should all rollover and take it the easy way. Maybe they will use ky jelly if we don't protest too loudly.

reply to post by spav5


That's not at all what I meant...But whatever.

Or maybe I'm misreading you post.

I am saying that we should not turn on wiki-leaks for fear of reprisal...we should support those that wish to make our Government transparent. It will not be a hard sell to the American people..just wrap it in a flag and lay a cross on it and the sheeple will follow. If not wiki leaks they will use saddam.. oh wait.. osama... umm freedom. They will find something to sell it to the people.

reply to post by spav5


I agree, actually.

but Wikileaks is being used by the powers that be as an example of why the internet should be stifled.

So I suppose we agree.

reply to post by projectvxn

Perhaps I misunderstood your position.

reply to post by spav5


Damned text only medium...

It happens.


Wikileaks, however, is not my biggest concern. My biggest concern is the community I love the most ATS. Whatever regulation comes down from the puppet masters will very much affect our community, and I am afraid of what they could do to us.

Like the fairness doctrine for TV and radio, a policy they wanted to institute on the internet, and in particular, political opinion blogs.

There are a lot of things coming down the pike. My hope is that the people will fervently resit this BS.

From your OP it is not at all clear what the Obama Admin wants. Except that they want to meddle with something that is doing just fine without them.

You wonder if these control-freaks will leave one space or place unregulated. The Internet could be that free space.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
From your OP it is not at all clear what the Obama Admin wants. Except that they want to meddle with something that is doing just fine without them.

You wonder if these control-freaks will leave one space or place unregulated. The Internet could be that free space.

I'm ALMOST ok with whatever regulation they want to put on whatever EXCEPT for the internet.
I just don't trust this government, after everything I have learned, with the stewardship of the greatest information tool known to human kind.

I have thought to myself, since the first Wikileaks 'scandalous' release of info, that the entire thing was orchestrated as a sort of false flag, by black ops, to serve as a rationale for locking down the Internet in some way. As it stands, the Internet is a vast frontier of ever-emerging knowledge. (And, granted, lots of bunk-- but keen eyes and steadfast hearts sift thru with tenacity for Truth.) But knowledge is power, and because of that, naturally there are those at the top of the power-pyramid who would cast us out of the metaphorical "Garden of Eden" lest our connection to this vast, ever- branching, ever-growing network of knowledge make us as powerful as them.

Well, that's what I think sometimes.