The organizations leading the
The week of action will feature an informational campaign aiming to teach people about cybersecurity bills currently in Congress as well as the promotion of tools which citizens can use to contact lawmakers about those bills. There are no SOPA-style blackouts of any major sites being planned. Instead, the groups involved are sticking to social media outreach, petitions and other techniques that proved effective when the battle over SOPA came to a head.
The organizers are encouraging concerned citizens to tweet at lawmakers with the hashtags #CongressTMI and #CISPA.
Does the CIA *have* to know how many times per week I look at that one guy's facebook pix? #CongressTMI #facebookstalkingnotacrime— Lea Rosen (@lea_rosen) April 16, 2012
#CISPA would allow #NSA to collect internet records of innocent Americans. Tell Congress: No Cyber Spying: bit.ly/HO8p41 #stopCISPA— ACLU National (@ACLU) April 16, 2012
CISPA, introduced by Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), is intended to allow private businesses and the government to share information about potential cybersecurity threats to prevent theft of intellectual property and bolster national security.
However, groups such as ACLU believe that CISPA's language is dangerously broad and would allow the government to spy on private emails, text messages and social media messages.
"H.R. 3523, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), promoted as a measure to counter cyber attacks, would allow the NSA to collect the internet records of people who are not suspected of doing anything wrong," says a petition hosted by the ACLU.
The EFF also considers CISPA to be a threat to privacy.
"We want Congress to reject legislation that uses dangerously vague language to define the breadth of data that can be shared with the government, hands the reins of America’s cybersecurity defenses to the NSA -- an agency with no transparency and little accountability -- and allows data shared with the government to be used for purposes unrelated to cybersecurity," says Rebecca Jeschke, media relations director at the EFF.
When major websites such as Wikipedia and Reddit shut their digital doors and Google hosted an anti-SOPA petition on Jan. 18, they generated tens of thousands of calls, tweets and emails to lawmakers. However, Brock Meeks of the Center for Democracy and Technology says that the planners are currently focused on spreading information about the bill without blacking out websites that could be used to foster conversation about cybersecurity and privacy.
"We're doing it to raise awareness of the serious civil liberties and privacy concerns that are still present in CISPA," says Meeks.
Meeks added that the planners are aware that CISPA is a draft under discussion -- the goal, he says, is to get their concerns about the bill into that conversation by raising awareness and encouraging people to make calls to Congress.
"We know that there is a lot of discussion, people up on the Hill are open to exploring additional changes in their bill and that's certainly welcome," says Meeks. "The aim of this week is to raise awareness and have people call members of Congress to tell them that they want certain provisions taken out of the bill and have the language narrowed to make sure it's used only for cybersecurity."
The House Intelligence Committee released an updated discussion draft of CISPA on Friday. Susan Phalen, communications director of that committee, says that posting was part of a continuing effort to increase transparency around the bill. The committee recently opened a Twitter account, @HouseIntelComm, which has been tweeting almost exclusively about CISPA.
Rogers-Ruppersberger #cyber bill keeps the federal govt’s hands off the Internet, & doesn't allow the govt to stop access to websites— House Intel Comm (@HouseIntelComm) April 11, 2012
Where do you stand on CISPA? Is it a necessary protection against cyberattacks, or does it pose a risk to online privacy? How would you change the bill? Sound off in the comments below.