How the next round of CISPA will come at us

With the government shutdown over and the NSA chief on his way out, the time is ripe for Washington to reintroduce the next leg of the SOPA-CISPA anti-piracy legislation. The difference is that this time you won’t hear nearly as much about it.

We’re fatigued. That’s the biggest problem Americans face when it comes to these bills. The battle against anti-piracy bills will eventually lose, not because we want to accept them but because the government has the power of time, repetition, media sway, and public relations distractions on their side. For those of us against such a law, it’s not a matter of if. It’s only a matter of when. Fatigue is to blame and will eventually get the best of us.

Last month, we saw the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein discussing the counterpart to CISPA. If you recall, it passed in the House of Representatives earlier this year but “died” in the Senate. What most considered a victory was actually a stalling technique. They didn’t kill the bill. They simply put it on the shelf until the right time came around to reintroduce it with a new name. That time is coming soon.

Just last week, reports came out that the Senate is “very close” to introducing a bill that will pick up the baton and try to carry it over the finish line. This time, they will probably succeed.

The US government is hell-bent on locking down the internet, watching all of our activities, and controlling what we can and cannot do. This is not simply the view of a tenacious conspiracy theorist. This is an opinion based upon the activities that are seen every day. They will not stop, nor can the be stopped. All we can do is try to slow it down and fight as long as we can.

Unfortunately, the fight may be coming to an end soon. There are simply too many distractions, too much going on. We can only sustain the pressure for so long. They will win this fight in the long run, but if we know how they’re going to come at us and why it’s going to be now, we might be able to hold out this round.

 

How they’ll come at us

The time is perfect for this. US citizens want members of both parties to work together. The conflict between the Republican House and the White House have hurt the country. We want compromise.

This is where the next generation of CISPA will come in just in time to be the bipartisan symbol of cooperation. They will dress the bill up in the Senate to appear to be a milder, gentler variation of CISPA. They will win “support” of this bill by many of the companies that opposed them in the past by making behind-the-scene deals with them. Expect Facebook and Google to be active participants in exchange for secret concessions. Don’t expect GoDaddy to go along with it.

They will get at least one major organization that formerly opposed the bills to back it this time. They will do this by pointing out how much better it is compared to the past variations.

They will not solicit support from Hollywood. In fact, they will tell them to stay out of it. The MPAA will be mum on the topic per the government’s instructions.

Last but not least, they will find examples to pull on the heartstrings of the American people. These examples will not be about helping Hollywood or the RIAA. It will be about something nefarious such as child pornography or even human trafficking. They will play this up as the only way to fight against these evils.

As strange as this may sound, they may even use this as a way to provide an alternative to the NSA spying. It’s not out of the question that they could spin this as a way to pull power away from the NSA altogether and to put the reins in the hands of a government body with oversight from both the public and private sector. That’s the only portion of the plan that is not guaranteed to happen at this point, only because it’s a moving target and the sentiment about these types of spying practices are constantly changing. In other words, if they think they can spin it properly at the time, they will. If they think that association would only hurt the cause, they’ll avoid it.

This isn’t just a theory. This is how they’re going to come after us. They are relentless. They want this so badly and they can taste it. We cannot give in. We cannot back down. The moment that we give them an inch, they’ll take a light year.

Whatever form this comes in, it will be the next major step towards a Big Brother state.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links and we may earn a small commission if you make a purchase, which helps us to keep delivering quality content to you. Here is our disclosure policy.

JD Rucker
JD Rucker
JD Rucker is Editor at Soshable, a Social Media Marketing Blog. He is a Christian, a husband, a father, and founder of both Judeo Christian Church and Dealer Authority. He drinks a lot of coffee, usually in the form of a 5-shot espresso over ice. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

How social media will play its biggest political roll ever for the Presidency

It's easy to say that social media is going to be a bigger player in this Presidential election than ever before. It's really only...

How will social media be used differently this election season?

Some have attributed the success of President Barack Obama's rise to prominence over early favorite Hillary Clinton in 2008 to the adept way his...

Finally, the Supreme Court is joining the digital age

One of the promises of the internet was to make more things available to the people in ways that we never knew before. For...

If New York City accepts bitcoin, everyone eventually will

In the early part of 2014, momentum was strong for the rise of bitcoin as a mainstream form of currency. Complications and conspiracies slowed...

Healthcare.gov: Why we should have expected a disastrous launch

It’s safe to say that the much-anticipated launch of Healthcare.gov, the Web portal for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, was an unmitigated disaster. Supposedly...

Related Articles

How social media will play its biggest political roll ever for...

It's easy to say that social media is going to be a bigger player in this Presidential election than ever...
Read More
Some have attributed the success of President Barack Obama's rise to prominence over early favorite Hillary Clinton in 2008 to...
One of the promises of the internet was to make more things available to the people in ways that we...