Fed control of the Internet: Good or bad?

We ended last week’s discussion with the fact that a proposed bill has now been introduced and is at the congressional level, which would give the president the power to not only seize control of the Internet, but lso shut it down should it pose a threat to national security.

Furthermore, we asked several important questions, which as promised we will now answer.

Because of the intense nature of the proposed bill and the unlimited power that it would give our president, there has been an attempt to put a means in place that would try to impose limits and restraints on the extent to which the president could go in carrying out the power given him in the proposed bill.

This has been done by way of the creation of a new paragraph that has been included in the bill and that seeks to create what would be termed a National Center for Cyber Security and Communications (NCCC).

This agency would have incredible oversight capability, but would be restricted from having the ability to order any entity to conduct surveillance of Americans unless it’s legally authorized to do so.

Don’t forget that thanks to the Patriot Act the government could claim they have authority to seize the Internet or spy on anyone and then get a warrant after the fact.

Now, when you put all of that and this new bill together, in my opinion it is a disaster waiting to happen.

I am a movie buff and I know that “Enemy of the State: starring Will Smith may have seemed like a far reach, but when you look at the pending bill that is now on the table, it is very clear and overwhelmingly obvious that if passed, the bill will put the Internet totally at the mercy and control of the federal government, thus making it very possible to enact what we saw happen in the movie.

I think we all can understand the government’s concern for cyber warfare.

Just recently the military created, appointed and opened the doors to a Cyber Security division aimed at protecting the military networks from an outside attack.

It is very clear that the Internet is open to attacks, especially when other countries do not have as much control set up to shut down piracy and hacking.

If the U.S. government wants to try and put up the brick wall before something happens, I call that being prepared.

However, if being prepared also comes with the fact that the control of the private Internet would basically be handed over to the federal government with no questions asked, I don’t know about you, but I call that a real big “deal breaker.”

Whatever happens and whatever your view is on the subject, we would love to hear your feelings and opinions.

Do you feel like you’re being watched, like right now while you’re on the Internet?

- George Bardissi