On December 18th, 2015 Congress passed a $1.15 trillion omnibus spending package as a way of continuing to fund the federal government and avoiding a government shutdown. Snuck into the bill was a highly controversial bill called CISA, a cyber security bill that was defeated in the past due to civil rights and privacy concerns.
Right on cue as always, the government brought the bill to the table right before the holidays at virtually the last second, giving the congressmen little to no time to even read the bill, let alone examine and pick apart its details before voting on it. This should come as no surprise, as often the corrupt politicians love to sneak in controversial measures in a hurry-up fashion in order to limit debate and hide discussion amongst the public and media. The politicians are basically left with a decision of either not funding the federal government, and therefore not passing CISA, or funding the federal government but allowing CISA to pass. Not giving the congressmen a free pass, but one can see how the timing is carefully planned out and puts the politicians in a bind.
Many critics have referred to CISA as the Patriot Act 2.0, in that it basically gives immunity to corporations in allowing them to share customer’s private data with the federal government. In a sense, most of the people’s online activity will now be legally accessed by the government, with no repercussions for the corporations handing it away. The people’s online civil rights have virtually been abolished.
It’s time people begin to wake-up before the door on freedom in completely shut for good. The powers that be are coming for the Internet, and if the people don’t get active, the free flow of information could get a major kink.
