Comments

1

Ive got a better idea - lets get rid of the internet entirely. It has been nothing but trouble.

2

Once in a while I totally disagree with you.

This is one of those times.

4

Think of the children!

6

@1,

I know you were being at least somewhat tongue-in-cheek, though I also agree (at least somewhat) with the sentiment. Getting people reading goddamn books again would be a thing of beauty. Though I also remember Terry Gross had some cyber-sociologist on her show a couple years ago and when she asked if the good the internet has brought outweighs the bad, I recall him giving the idea a lot of merit, owing in large part to what the potential to disseminate information can do for developing cultures. But then I also think that was before pizzagate and Shitler, so I suppose it's maybe time for a re-evaluation on that front.

7

Facebook does a good job regulating content that is critical of white supremacy, so maybe they have the manpower for this too!

8

This won’t hinder encryption. It will only hasten a more wide spread adoption. It could cause a decentralization similar to how the original internet community of Usenet started. With any luck it will help bring the demise, or at least reduction of walled garden communities like Facebook.

10

@9 - Unfortunately, Jeez, you are absolutely incorrect about the "conception and birth" of the Internet. The Internet was conceived of by the RAND Corporation in the mid-50s, and birthed by the Advanced Projects Research Agency of the US Military as a new style of communications network ("packet-switched", instead of operator-switched) that could continue functioning in the event of a nuclear war, where major sections of the country (and communications networks) would be destroyed.

The traditional telephone network relied on key centralized switching locations, (eg. Omaha). Nuke Omaha, and the entire network becomes useless due to reliance on that central point.

The Internet was explicitly designed as a decentralized 'web'-style network, that could lose chunks (Omaha, Chicago, etc) and messages would autonomously re-route through the still functioning parts of the network.

I have no idea where you got this "give everyone (in the world!) an immediate & equal voice" crap. But Jeez, it's totally wrong. It was designed & built for military purposes.

@8 - It WILL hinder encryption if encryption becomes illegal to distribute in the Apple App Store and Google 'Play' apps store, or online. Sure, people will still be able to pass encryption tools around and use them, but that will become more difficult and untrustworthy, because the DOJ or police or whomever can easily create and "release" faux-encryption tools and distribute them, allowing spying and simultaneously sowing distrust & confusion.

Kinda like today's media disinformation strategy: Report multiple "truths" to sow confusion & distrust.

11

Actually, until sometime in the 1980s, it was only used by those of us in the military and scientific fields. Of course, we've kept you all off the current version, with it's 100 GBPS speeds, and 40 GBPS ports, because we know exactly what you would do with it - again - you p3rv5 ...

13

@6 I'm kidding/not-kidding. I reckon 500 years from now the internet will look even more calamitous in retrospect than the goddam movable type printing press and general literacy. Assuming there are any humans left alive to lament.

15

Basic question...what is the "IT" the authors of this bill are saying must be "Earned"?

16

We’ll just have to build a new internet like they did in Silicon Valley

17

@15: Your question suggests you know the answer, but for those who don't, the IT is the first amendment. According to the sponsors of this bill, you must "earn" your right to free speech.

I'm old enough to remember the utopian belief that the internet would "set us all free." They failed to understand human nature. It has simply a matter of time until the police state turned ot around and used it to set up mass surveillance and strip us of any online 1st, 4th and 10th amendment Constitutional protections online.

Because people having sex is the current US hysteria, law enforcement has used sex as an excuse to eviscerate 1st, 4th and 10th amendment across the board as it applies to the internet. While the Earn it act is federal, no State has worked harder to criminalize online speech than Washington State. Blame it on the intolerance of the monoculture and the police state designed to exploit it.

Remember, the purpose of the Constitution is not to protect the guilty as cop procedural shows and law enforcement will tell you, it's to protect the innocent. Without 1st, 4th and 10th amendment protections, we're all criminals if we hold a minority view.

18

@17- actually, I DIDN'T know that at all. Thanks for the explanation.


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