Extra Credit Blog - Civil Liberties

This spring, civil liberties groups and internet companies became extremely concerned when a US Senate Bill proposed that the White House would be able to disconnect and somewhat control private computers from the internet. Even with this bill already starting drama, Senator Jay Rockafeller of West Virginia and his aides have been revising the bill behind closed doors since this whole thing began.

The new version being drafted would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to computer networks not involving the government and do what's necessary to respond and react to the threat. Other sections of this new proposal include a government certification program for "cybersecurity professionals," and a requirement that some private computer systems and networks in be managed by people who have that liscense.

Does this new possible bill interfere with our rights? Does the government, no, should the government have the ability to control the internet? A place where words fly and opinions are expressed through every type of media possibly known to man. When the bill was introduced in april, supporters of passing it claimed it was to "protect national cybersecurity".

Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.

"As soon as you're saying that the federal government is going to be exercising
this kind of power over private networks, it's going to be a really big issue,"

he says.

Why should buisnesses be private in the first place, if the government can all of a sudden propose and revise a bill giving them power to basically de-privatize the system. This bill impedes on our civil liberties, and impedes on the rights of the people.