User:TJM Wiki Profile/US Constitution, Liberty and Technology

US Constitution, Liberty and Technology ...

The End of Net Neutrality, Privacy and the Rise of the Draconian Establishment

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2011 (NDAA) will provide exclusive intelligence powers to the U.S. President. In the Internet Age, NDAA will have a potential draconian effect. NDAA, coupled with Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Protect IP Act of 2011 and SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act of 2011), will provide a legal framework for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide exclusive information for the U.S. President. For example, social media like Twitter and Facebook, both common staples of Internet users, can be legally monitored for national security threats under the veil of copyright and trademark protections. If a U.S. citizen is politically active in one of several recent social movements, e.g., Occupy Wall Street (OWS), the government may deign any Twitter or Facebook comment a potential threat, for instance, to interstate travel. DHS maintains complex relational databases that data mine up to five million Tweets daily; the algorithms do not distinguish persons that have “nothing to hide” versus an actual terrorist. So, our hapless Tweeter may experience detainment by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) because of a sympathetic OWS tweet. Because NDAA will provide exclusive intelligence to the U.S. President, any information that may threaten the Establishment - any entity that is vested in the political status quo - the Internet’s beloved social media will become the intelligence tool under open source collection. NDAA’s exclusivity powers will provide an unchecked threat to the Internet using public: average citizens may vanish and be detained indefinitely; rival political candidates may be attacked for positions shared via social media networks. It is imaginable the actual tweet or Facebook comment could be altered to serve a corrupt usage of NDAA. In an open society we risk a little safety for a lot of freedom. NDAA is an unfair yoke that will serve interests of the Establishment and alter the United States; and as America becomes privatized, the threat of corporate abuse should be a clear and present danger to the voting public. The U.S. public deserves intelligent solutions to protect the Bill of Rights. We need not shackle ourselves for royalties, war profits and the Establishment's fear of losing control.