Had to happen sooner or later, I guess: the federal government is supposedly making moves to limit blogging - at least in the political arena. Check out this piece on CNet which starts:
- In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign’s Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate’s press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.
I bet analyzing what politicians say, checking their facts and exposing their lies and misbehaviors is also going to come under attack. Nevermind pointing out what a farce the US system of voting is in the first place.
Later on in the article, they ask:
- If Congress doesn’t change the law, what kind of activities will the FEC have to target?
We’re talking about any decision by an individual to put a link (to a political candidate) on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet.
This is just so far past being preposterous. It reminds me of that whole scandal where companies were trying to sue people for linking to their website (so-called “deep-linking”). If this is the direction we’re headed, we may as well shut down the internet altogether and crawl back into the caves.
[Via Art of the Blog]
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