The government could shutdown Facebook, and business interests want to stop copyright violations by capping how much Internet you get to use. Those are some of the takeaways from last week's hearing before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition, and the Internet.
The business lobby, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), are on a crusade to shut down MegaVideo and ensure that no 12 year-old ever downloads another Bieber song for free. If in service of these highest of ends they should happen to trounce all over the integrity of the Internet and institute a Chinese-style censorship regime, then so be it. An overview of the last few months:
1) The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (the "Internet Blacklist Bill") would block your access to sites the government says are engaging in even small amounts of copyright infringement -- no matter what other content they house.
2) The government just arrested one website operator for linking to other sites.
3) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been seizing domain names without due process: they shut down 84,000 sites by accident last month, and government officials think ICE and DHS are claiming powers that would even let them shut down Facebook.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren -- who opposes the seizures -- made that final point at last week's hearing on online copyright infringement. She noted that, "If ICE is to be believed [Facebook] would be taken down."
You read that right: the agencies in charge of policing online copyright violations are so heavy-handed that they're claiming powers that could let them shut down Facebook.
That might sound beyond the pale, but DHS and ICE have been taking their cues from big business -- many of the website seizures were directly at the behest of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Movie Picture Association of America -- and the business lobby is pushing some pretty outrageous proposals.
At last week's hearing, Daniel Castro of the business-backed Information Technology and Innovation Foundation suggested that lawmakers try to stop piracy by instituting Internet "pricing structures and usage caps." Groups like Demand Progress have been naively plugging along, fighting policies that block users' access to individual sites, but now big business sees fit to stymie your access to the Internet altogether. So there's no telling what sort of trouble DHS and ICE will stir up next.
You can watch key clips of last week's hearing below, in our new video about these critical threats to Internet freedom. And demand that DHS and ICE quit it with the website seizures by clicking here.