Internet Control
In a blow to telecom and cable companies, FCC chairman Wheeler said he is proposing the FCC use its authority under Title II of the Communications Act to protect consumer broadband Internet. This move will allow the FCC to stop Internet service providers from charging content providers like Netflix more money for reliable Internet access.
The principle of net neutrality is easy to understand and support; to treat the delivery all data equally. This has been the status quo. Works great. Few oppose that, but supporting the principle of net neutrality is not the same thing as supporting the government’s plan to enforce that principle.
After President Obama came out with a surprise call for net neutrality, Verizon struck back with a new lawsuit threat. But the case for net neutrality is on solid legal ground — it’s the political case that’s now shaky. Here’s why.
A summary of the chilling new anti-terrorism/freedom of speech laws introduced by the Abbott Government in Australia this week. George Orwell must be rolling in his grave… again. “Under the National Security Legislation Amendment Bill (No. 1) 2014, anyone including, “journalists, whistle-blowers and bloggers” – who “recklessly” disclose “information” … [that] relates to a special intelligence operation” will now face up to 10 years in jail for doing so.
In 2007, Yahoo fought back against the government’s demand for information on certain overseas customers, saying that the request was over-broad and violated the constitution.
Make sure you sign American Commitment’s petition to Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC below—and tell him that the American people won’t stand for a federal takeover of the Internet. And we’ll send a copy of your petition to your Congressman too—just so that they know where their constituents stand in the fight to stop these crippling Internet regulations.
Sign the petition HERE…
Governments around the world, spearheaded by Uncle Sam, monitor communication via email, phone, social networks, webcam etc. en masse. Even though government surveillance is becoming more and more invasive, there are ways to shield yourself from prying eyes.
The virtually inescapable government surveillance has impaired if not eliminated the ability of news-gatherers and attorneys to communicate confidentially with their sources and their clients.
Big retailers, including Amazon, have been lobbying long and hard for it, and now the Internet sales tax is back after being quietly reintroduced in the US Senate last week. The Marketplace and Internet Tax Fairness Act would force customers to pay sales taxes for online purchases from out-of-state online merchants, and it forces online retailers to collect and remit separately sales taxes to all US territories.
A new cybersecurity bill poses serious threats to our privacy, gives the government extraordinary powers to silence potential whistleblowers, and exempts these dangerous new powers from transparency laws. The Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2014 (“CISA”) was scheduled to be marked up by the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday but has been delayed until after next week’s congressional recess. The response to the proposed legislation from the privacy, civil liberties, tech, and open government communities was quick and unequivocal – this bill must not go through. The bill would create a massive loophole in our existing privacy laws by allowing the government to ask companies for “voluntary” cooperation in sharing information, including the content of our communications, for cybersecurity purposes. But the definition they are using for the so-called “cybersecurity information” is so broad it could sweep up huge amounts of innocent Americans’ personal data.
Surveillance reform gained new congressional momentum as the US House of Representatives unexpectedly and overwhelmingly endorsed stripping a major post-9/11 power from the NSA.
![Net Neutrality [JUICE RAP NEWS]](https://i2.wp.com/consciouslifenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/net-neutrality.jpg?resize=640%2C240&ssl=1 "Net Neutrality [JUICE RAP NEWS]")
What is Net Neutrality, and why is it so important to the future of the Internet? Find out by joining Robert Foster as he takes a whimsical trip into the World Wide Web, with its founder Tim Berners-Lee and FaceBook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
However, there is a silver lining in Thursday’s decision: Under huge pressure from millions of outraged citizens, Wheeler changed the FCC’s proposal from one that only considered the creation of an Internet slow lane, to one that also opens the door to a popular common sense alternative: a free and open online highway.
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a former top cable and wireless industry lobbyist, appears to have misjudged both public opinion and his fellow Democratic commissioners regarding his “Open Internet” proposal.
More than 30 civil liberties groups and tech companies have formed a coalition against internet surveillance and NSA spying, with a ‘Reset the Net’ day of action planned for June 5 to mark a year since Edward Snowden’s leaks.
