MCViewPoint

Opinion from a Libertarian ViewPoint

Posts Tagged ‘Restrict Act’

The Most Diabolical Legislation Ever Created… Here’s What it Means for Free Speech

Posted by M. C. on May 19, 2023

It may seem completely off the wall, and frankly, if I’d even thought, much less written about this even just four years ago, I’d have called the men in white coats to come check if, you know, everything is OK. Today? Well, we’ve already seen some things which none of us would have thought possible… and yet here we are.

https://internationalman.com/articles/the-most-diabolical-legislation-ever-created…-heres-what-it-means-for-free-speech/

by Chris MacIntosh

Restrict Act

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A few issues back we highlighted the newly — and dare I say, appropriately named and promoted— “Restrict Act.” With the evil TikTok as the scapegoat providing cover for what amounts to easily THE most diabolical legislature I’ve ever seen proposed, freedom of speech will be no more — irrespective of platform.

Some questions to ponder: Is TikTok a tool of the CCP? And furthermore, if the CCP could get its hands on the data from TikTok and any other large user platform, would it? And also, would ANY government, yours included — wherever that may be — wish to have access to the data from ANY social media platform and if it could obtain it, would it?

The painfully obvious answers to these questions reveal the absurdity of singling TikTok out as a problem while pretending to be “protecting citizens” for “national security.” It is a red herring and a step towards censoring and hence controlling EVERY social media platform.

What else? We are to believe that “highly classified information” was leaked about the war in Ukraine. We are also led to believe that a low ranking 21-year-old (who would absolutely NOT have access to highly classified information) somehow had it and then put it on Discord?

Now, if you believe that, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

See the rest here

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The RESTRICT Act Restricts More Than TikTok

Posted by M. C. on April 5, 2023

https://rumble.com/v2g2fog-the-restrict-act-restricts-more-than-tiktok.html

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Enslaving The World To Stop Chinese Tyranny: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by M. C. on April 3, 2023

In the year 2023 there’s really no excuse for ordinary Americans to believe any politician is on their side in either major party. The very best of them will only once in a while do the bare-minimum not-evil thing. Don’t make heroes of these scumbags. They’re not your friends.

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/enslaving-the-world-to-stop-chinese?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Caitlin Johnstone

Trump should have stuck to just doing legal things like assassinating foreign leaders, deliberately starving civilians, imprisoning journalists, and dropping military explosives on foreign nations.

If you’re just tuning in, US dollar hegemony and diplomatic dominance are rapidly eroding while the US and its allies accelerate aggressions and provocations against Russia and China simultaneously in a desperate bid to quash the emergence of a multipolar world. I’m a bit less excited about the mounting threats posed to US hegemony than other anti-imperialists, only because a desperate unipolarist empire is a dangerous unipolarist empire. The deadliest time for a battered wife is right when she leaves.

A cornered animal is dangerous, especially when it has sharp teeth. A cornered empire is dangerous, especially when it has nuclear weapons. “If I can’t have you no one can” is a line that can be said to a partner or to a planet.

Abuse victims need to escape, but we may also be heading into the most perilous moment in all of history.

Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz

How is this even debatable? The US Constitution explicitly says in the clearest terms possible that congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press, and yet that’s literally exactly the thing that congress is trying to do.

Image

NBC News @NBCNews

“If you don’t like TikTok or Facebook or YouTube, don’t use them. But don’t think any interpretation of the Constitution gives you the right to ban them,” Sen. Paul said, breaking from his GOP colleagues on a measure that would prohibit use of the app. https://t.co/sMNM2wLIxp11:10 PM ∙ Mar 29, 20232,549Likes824Retweets

It’s so crazy that the immensely authoritarian RESTRICT Act is getting shoved through on a tidal wave of consent that’s based on literally nothing besides people’s fuzzbrained artificially-manufactured hysteria about China.

Consent for the PATRIOT Act was manufactured by planes crashing into American skyscrapers and killing thousands of people. Consent for the RESTRICT Act was manufactured by a few right wing pundits stoking a dopey moral panic about an app where kids post dancing videos.

It just says so much about the lies the west tells about itself and its values that the second any social media service becomes widely used you see the entire US security state converge upon it and demand control over it.

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Sen. Rand Paul to Block Sen. Josh Hawley’s Bill to Ban TikTok – News From Antiwar.com

Posted by M. C. on March 30, 2023

“I hope saner minds will reflect on which is more dangerous: videos of teenagers dancing or the precedent of the US government banning speech. For me, it’s an easy answer, I will defend the Bill of Rights against all comers, even, if need be, from members of my own party,” he concluded.

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/03/29/sen-rand-paul-to-block-sen-josh-hawleys-bill-to-ban-tiktok/

by Dave DeCamp

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) plans to block a bill introduced by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) that would ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok, The Hill reported Wednesday.

Hawley’s bill, the No TikTok on United States Devices Act, would prohibit the app from being downloaded in the US and ban commercial activity with TikTok’s parent company, the China-based ByteDance.

The legislation is much narrower than the RESTRICT Act that was introduced in the Senate and has received 21 bipartisan cosponsors. The RESTRICT Act would give the Commerce Secretary sweeping powers to crack down on any transactions between US persons and so-called “foreign adversaries” relating to information and communication technology.

Hawley was hoping to pass his legislation by unanimous consent, but Paul has broken with the rest of the GOP and came out against banning TikTok, saying it would emulate China’s internet censorship. “If you don’t like TikTok or Facebook or YouTube, don’t use them. But don’t think any interpretation of the Constitution gives you the right to ban them,” Paul wrote in an op-ed for the Courier Journal.

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The Restrict Act Is The Patriot Act on Steroids

Posted by M. C. on March 29, 2023

https://rumble.com/v2f78es-the-restrict-act-is-the-patriot-act-on-steroids.html

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The Patriot Act on steroids: D.C. Uniparty wants to use anti-TikTok legislation as Trojan horse for censorship and surveillance

Posted by M. C. on March 29, 2023

Beltway lawmakers are setting up a smokescreen to curtail rights.

Unfortunately, the ongoing TikTok hearings in D.C. have very little to do with protecting the rights of Americans from potential Chinese Communist Party data harvesting, and lots to do with protecting the Uniparty’s dominance over the communications and surveillance space.

https://open.substack.com/pub/dossier/p/the-patriot-act-on-steroids-dc-uniparty?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Jordan Schachtel

TikTok is indeed a pestilence upon our society.

But there are right ways to go about minimizing this “digital opium” and its impact on our lives, and other means that will allow the American government to leverage the situation to further curtail our individual rights.

And unsurprisingly, the latter idea is making lawmakers in the beltway beyond giddy this week.

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TikTok is indeed a pestilence upon our society.

But there are right ways to go about minimizing this “digital opium” and its impact on our lives, and other means that will allow the American government to leverage the situation to further curtail our individual rights.

And unsurprisingly, the latter idea is making lawmakers in the beltway beyond giddy this week.

The Dossier is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Subscribe

The Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology (RESTRICT) Act (S.686), which was introduced in the Senate earlier this month, would do much more than just ban TikTok.

This bill is no mere “TikTok ban,” it is a mechanism for a massive, sweeping surveillance and censorship overhaul.  

The RESTRICT Act goes far, far beyond potentially banning TikTok. It gives the government virtual unchecked authority over the U.S. communications infrastructure. The incredibly broad language includes the ability to “enforce any mitigation measure to address any risk” to “national security” today and in any “potential future transaction.”

The Senate legislation currently has 19 cosponsors, all of whom are Uniparty members in good standing. It is fully “bipartisan,” consisting of 9 democrats and 10 republicans. 

Darin Feinstein @DarinFeinstein

TikTok is bad, but the Restrict Act could be worse “To authorize the Secretary of Commerce to review and prohibit certain TRANSACTIONS between persons in the USA and foreign adversaries, AND for other purposes(?)” Overly Broad Language = Future Abuse congress.gov/bill/118th-con…

7:05 PM ∙ Mar 27, 2023


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Timcast’s Ian Crossland fittingly described the legislation as The Patriot Act for technology.

Human Events @HumanEvents

On Timcast, @IanCrossland suggests the Restrict Act, which was introduced to ban TikTok, could set a dangerous precedent: “It gives you carte blanche to just start ending networks … this is like the Patriot Act for technology.”

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