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Like many Era X people, I’ve complained lengthy and exhausting about TikTok and the brainwashing results on younger folks of 15-30-second intervals of entertaining social programming for hours at a time. I’ve additionally been involved concerning the Chinese language possession of TikTok – is that this only a large psy-op?
So after I heard that Congress was lastly on the brink of ban the app, I used to be curious. I do see inherent risks with TikTok. I do imagine it’s getting used to each spy and brainwash our younger folks. However ought to it really be banned? And what door does such a ban open to additional restrictions on our freedom?
After all, I quickly realized this was something however good. Similar to the Patriot Act has little to do with patriotism and the Nationwide Protection Authorization Act has extra to do with indefinite detention with out trials than nationwide protection, the invoice to ban TikTok is about a lot, way more.
It’s about silencing dissent…brutally. And it’ll have an effect on each single considered one of us.
Please notice that there’s multiple invoice within the works. This text is particularly concerning the one that’s probably to cross, a worrisome, bipartisan effort.
It’s referred to as the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act or the RESTRICT Act. As a blogger, I have a look at this and discover it terrifying. As an American, I have a look at this and need to weep for the freedoms that our authorities continues to crush.
It’s as much as us to behave on this data and produce a public outcry that can not be ignored. If this passes, you received’t hear concerning the dangers of CBDCs, the place we’re sending our cash as a substitute of serving to our personal residents, or the shortcomings of the banking industry. You received’t be capable to get various data from blogs and YouTube and Twitter. As a substitute, your data will come from the mainstream media, and they are going to be a mouthpiece for the agenda of whoever is in energy.
You could dislike TikTok as a lot as I do, nevertheless it doesn’t warrant throwing the free speech child out with the Chinese language bathwater.
Let’s check out this invoice.
What’s the RESTRICT Act all about?
Right here’s the introduction. (Emphasis is mine.)
This invoice requires federal actions to establish and mitigate overseas threats to data and communications expertise (ICT) services. It additionally establishes civil and legal penalties for violations beneath the invoice.
Particularly, the Division of Commerce should establish, deter, disrupt, stop, prohibit, examine, and mitigate transactions involving ICT services (1) during which any overseas adversary has any curiosity, and (2) that pose an undue or unacceptable danger to U.S. nationwide safety or the security of U.S. individuals.
Commerce could (1) designate any overseas authorities or regime as a overseas adversary upon a willpower that the overseas authorities or regime is engaged in a long-term sample or severe cases of conduct considerably opposed to U.S. nationwide safety or the safety and security of U.S. individuals, and (2) take away such a designation. Commerce should notify Congress earlier than making or eradicating a designation; these actions are topic to congressional disapproval.
The invoice outlines (1) enforcement mechanisms, together with actions by the Division of Justice; and (2) civil and legal penalties for violations.
If you learn this, it seems like we’re ONLY stopping folks outdoors the US from influencing folks throughout the US, significantly for financial acquire. However listen as a result of it’s not that clear-cut when you get into the text of the bill.
First, it names our “adversaries” as China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.
However it provides the federal government the liberty to deem anybody a nationwide safety danger and go after them with all the pieces they’ve acquired. The vagueness and broadness of the language on this invoice ought to alarm everybody who believes in the appropriate to privateness and free speech. From Part 3:
The Secretary, in session with the related govt division and company heads, is permitted to and shall take motion to establish, deter, disrupt, stop, prohibit, examine, or in any other case mitigate, together with by negotiating, getting into into, or imposing, and implementing any mitigation measure to handle any danger arising from any coated transaction by any particular person, or with respect to any property, topic to the jurisdiction of the USA that the Secretary determines…
Does that sound to you prefer it’ll simply be restricted to the sneaky Chinese language operating TikTok or these pesky Russians?
They will entry something on the unfortunate sufferer’s laptop: video video games, banking data, chats, and something their laptop has related to, like a Ring doorbell digicam or a sensible equipment.
Take into consideration how adamant the federal government has been about silencing voices like ours on this web site. Take into consideration how they’ve gone after the Various Media for years. We’ve been downgraded, demonetized, deplatformed, and demonized within the eyes of the general public. All for the thoughtcrime of questioning the federal government. All as a result of we don’t swallow what we’re spoonfed. All as a result of we train our constitutionally protected proper to freedom of speech and a free press.
How lengthy do you suppose it’s earlier than we’re focused by this invoice? After which, as soon as our computer systems are seized and each facet of our digital lives is open to the prying eyes of the federal government, how lengthy do you suppose it will likely be earlier than individuals who devour or share this content material are additionally focused?
What occurs to these deemed a menace?
Part 10 explains how anybody could be investigated and deemed a menace.
Part 11 addresses a prolonged checklist of proposed illegal acts, lots of that are too imprecise to essentially nail down, and thus may very well be used as a broad brush to color almost anybody with conflicting opinions as responsible. Anybody committing considered one of these illegal acts may very well be topic to harsh civil and legal penalties. Civilly, they may face a tremendous of 1 / 4 million {dollars}. Criminally, it will get far, far worse. From Part 11:
(1) IN GENERAL.—An individual who willfully commits, willfully makes an attempt to commit, or willfully conspires to commit, or aids or abets within the fee of an illegal act described in subsection (a) shall, upon conviction, be fined no more than $1,000,000, or if a pure particular person, could also be imprisoned for no more than 20 years, or each.
Additionally, as soon as they’re convicted, they’ll face legal forfeiture.
(i) any property, actual or private, tangible or intangible, used or supposed for use, in any method, to commit or facilitate the violation or tried violation of paragraph (1); and
(ii) any property, actual or private, tangible or intangible, constituting or traceable to the gross proceeds taken, obtained, or retained, in reference to or on account of the violation.
So they may tremendous an individual one million {dollars}, throw them in jail for 20 years, and take all the pieces that they personal, which can have been paid for by the proceeds of their enterprise.
What concerning the Freedom of Info Act?
To ice the unconstitutional cupcake, none of that is topic to the Freedom of Info Act. In case you go to Part 15, half 2:
Any data submitted to the Federal Authorities by a celebration to a coated transaction in accordance with this Act, in addition to any data the Federal Authorities could create regarding evaluate of the coated transaction, is exempt from disclosure beneath part 552 of title 5, United States Code (generally known as the “Freedom of Info Act”).
No person will ever be capable to get the knowledge wanted that can assist you, must you fall sufferer to the act. It additionally supplies for limitless hiring energy to implement this act, with no finances restrict.
What about VPNs?
There are some claims that VPN users may very well be topic to twenty years in jail and a million-dollar tremendous, additionally, in the event that they’re utilizing this to get across the US restrictions on a banned web site or app.
Within the textual content of the invoice, I can not affirm that that is true. There’s no point out of it instantly, and the closest factor I might discover that even prompt that such a factor may very well be unlawful was in part 11, the place it says:
“(F) No particular person could have interaction in any transaction or take every other motion with intent to evade the provisions of this Act, or any regulation, order, path, mitigation measure, prohibition, or different authorization or directive issued thereunder.”
Newsweek (take this for what it’s price) says that VPN customers want don’t have any worry.
The ban’s legal penalties, which embody a tremendous as much as one million greenback and/or imprisonment of as much as 20 years, has brought on some alarm among the many invoice’s observers, who’ve questioned whether or not some TikTok fanatics may face jail time for utilizing a Digital Non-public Community (VPN) to get across the ban and entry the app.
However a spokesperson for Senator Mark Warner, the invoice’s sponsor, instructed Newsweek that it could not apply to particular person customers.
“Beneath the phrases of the invoice, somebody should be engaged in ‘sabotage or subversion’ of communications expertise within the U.S., inflicting ‘catastrophic results’ on U.S. important infrastructure, or ‘interfering in, or altering the consequence’ of a federal election to ensure that legal penalties to use,” Warner’s communications director, Rachel Cohen, mentioned.
“The invoice is squarely aimed toward firms like Kaspersky, Huawei and TikTok that create systemic dangers to the USA’ nationwide safety, not particular person customers,” she clarified.
None of this actually units my thoughts comfortable and the vagueness of how that is laid out is as regarding because it at all times is when the federal government provides themselves house to vary the principles.
For extra data, check out this thread by the Libertarian Social gathering Mises Caucus. You may as well take a look at the video beneath if you happen to desire an audio model of the dialogue concerning the invoice. (Begin round 2:30.)
Who’s sponsoring the invoice?
I’ve been saying for years that one occasion actually isn’t higher than the opposite and it’s ringing true with this bipartisan piece of proposed legislature. Either side need to take away your freedom.
The invoice is sponsored by Senator Mark Walker [D-VA] and the next senators are co-sponsors. Here’s who is behind this.
Republicans:
- Sen. Thune, John [R-SD]
- Sen. Fischer, Deb [R-NE]
- Sen. Moran, Jerry [R-KS]
- Sen. Sullivan, Dan [R-AK]
- Sen. Collins, Susan M. [R-ME]
- Sen. Romney, Mitt [R-UT]
- Sen. Capito, Shelley Moore [R-WV]
- Sen. Cramer, Kevin [R-ND]
- Sen. Grassley, Chuck [R-IA]
- Sen. Tillis, Thomas [R-NC]
- Sen. Graham, Lindsey [R-SC]
- Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID]
- Sen. Boozman, John [R-AR]
Democrats:
- Sen. Baldwin, Tammy [D-WI]
- Sen. Manchin, Joe, III [D-WV]
- Sen. Bennet, Michael F. [D-CO]
- Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [D-NY]
- Sen. Heinrich, Martin [D-NM]
- Sen. Lujan, Ben Ray [D-NM]
- Sen. Kaine, Tim [D-VA]
- Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [D-CT]
- Sen. Hickenlooper, John W. [D-CO]
- Sen. Kelly, Mark [D-AZ]
- Sen. Welch, Peter [D-VT]
Impartial
- Sen. King, Angus S., Jr. [I-ME]
As you possibly can see, that is actually a bipartisan try and screw the American folks.
This isn’t the one anti-TikTok invoice.
Yesterday, Sen. Josh Hawley [R-AR] tried to fast-track his invoice to ban TikTok, which might direct the president to make use of the Worldwide Emergency Financial Powers Act inside 30 days to dam and prohibit transactions with TikTok’s father or mother firm ByteDance.
His effort was blocked by Senator Rand Paul [R-KY]. Paul said:
“There are two important the explanation why we’d not need to do that. The one could be the First Modification to the Structure. Speech is protected whether or not you prefer it or not. The second purpose could be that the Structure really prohibits payments of attainder,” he mentioned earlier than objecting.
“This fails on two egregious factors, fairly apparent factors. I believe we ought to consider that,” he added.
The Structure prohibits payments of attainder, which permit the federal government to punish people or teams with out a trial.
Paul prompt that proponents of banning TikTok are peddling worry and argued that home Massive Tech firms additionally gather huge quantities of knowledge from American customers with out a lot scrutiny or interference from the federal authorities.
“I believe we should always concentrate on those that peddle worry. I believe we should always concentrate on those that use worry to coax People to relinquish our liberties,” he mentioned. “Each accusation of data-gathering that’s been attributed to TikTok is also attributed to home Massive Tech firms.”
This isn’t an assault on TikTok. It’s an assault on free speech.
Consider me after I let you know, this isn’t simply to ban the Chinese language social media large, TikTok. It’s an out-and-out assault on free speech, significantly that of the dissenting selection. If handed, it jogs my memory of the Nice Firewall of China. Is that actually the way you need the American Web to be? Solely government-approved apps and factors of view could be accessible in your consumption?
Anybody who thinks that that is worthwhile is a part of the issue. And that features each senator who’s sponsoring this invoice and everybody who votes for it. All of us want to succeed in out to the workplaces of our native Senators. Each single considered one of us wants to jot down, name, electronic mail, and make ourselves heard.
We have to share with everybody we all know that this invoice IS NOT WHAT IT SEEMS TO BE.
We’ve fought in opposition to censorship earlier than. Folks like us had been noisy and indignant and we stopped the Disinformation Governance Board earlier than it acquired off the bottom. We’ve made our voices heard and brought again our energy earlier than.
We have to do it once more.
And we have to do it whereas we nonetheless can.
What do you suppose?
I’d actually love to listen to your ideas within the feedback. What do you consider the invoice? Do you discover it harmful? Do you suppose it’s a fantastic thought? What can we do about it?
Let’s focus on it.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and writer of three web sites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about present occasions, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2) The Frugalite, a web site with thrifty ideas and options to assist folks get a deal with on their private funds with out feeling disadvantaged; and three) PreppersDailyNews.com, an combination website the place you could find hyperlinks to all an important information for individuals who want to be ready. Her work is broadly republished throughout various media and she or he has appeared in lots of interviews.
Daisy is the best-selling writer of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You’ll find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
