It's Never Over

SOPA and PIPA are dead. Essentially. A major victory has been had against the background deals and the censorship of our rights. Support for these bills has withdrawn and they are no longer going to be voted on. Success right?

Wrong.

Its called the Protecting Children from Online Pornographers Act and its potentially worse than SOPA and PIPA combined. While the purpose of the act is honorable in and of itself, wanting to be able to better enable the government to locate and prosecute online child pornographers and pedophiles, its methods to do so are...draconian. With all of its morality and basic good vs. bad mentality, it hides the fact that it would allow the government to track internet users personal history. That's right, they could keep tabs on every citizen in the U.S. online, essentially disrupting all senses of privacy online. Not only is that wrong and against basic freedoms guaranteed by our constitution, its also fairly reminding of a certain book...

That's right, I went there.

While this is certainly frustrating, as it seems more and more bills just keep coming at us, its not the first time. Congress consistently uses this method of naming bills in a certain way to make any opponents look bad. Examples?

• Patriot Act- Oppose this, you hate America, you commie.
• No Child Left Behind- Think of the children!
• Protect IP Act- Are you for piracy, huh? You want to leave us defenseless?
• Stop Online Piracy Act- You just want every hardworking American to lose every hard earned cent to foreign pirates??? 

This tactic is tried and true, and devious one at that. It makes sure that the interests of big business and politics get what they want with little bother from the mainstream public. The fact that so much opposition was had against SOPA and PIPA was due to the level of awareness raised about the possible harms stemming from the bill. This time those harms are much, much worse. Picture yourself after this bill is passed. Soon the FBI is in control of enforcing it and they have the ability to track anyone they deem a potential threat. They could view everything and anything you do online. Every website visited, every Facebook post posted, every video watched. Tracked and recorded. What's next after that? They going to start putting up cameras and bugging buildings? I've had enough of this behind-the-scenes legislation and the overall corruptness that plagues modern-day politics. I agree with Senator Lofgren when she tried to rename the bill the "Keep Every American's Digital Data for Submission to the Federal Government Without a Warrant Act." Will the internet be able to put up another fight? Or has our element of surprise been used up already? Time will tell, as opposition builds against yet another harmful act.