As
published on Slashdot, in their
"Your Rights Online" section:
Krishna Dagli writes to mention a C|Net story covering a House of Representatives vote on restricting access to social sites on public terminals. The bill, which passed the House in a 410-15 vote, would bar users from accessing sites like Amazon, MySpace, or Slashdot from terminals in libraries and schools. Adults would be able to 'ask permission' to access such sites. From the article:
"'Social networking sites, best known by the popular examples of MySpace, Friendster and Facebook, have literally exploded in popularity in just a few short years,' said Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican and one of DOPA's original sponsors. Now, he added, those Web sites 'have become a haven for online sexual predators who have made these corners of the Web their own virtual hunting ground.'"
The nerds are now kibbitzing about the story.
The reps of the people have now acted to prohibit the people from networking ("literally", despite the abuse of that term by Fitzpatrick, R-PA) with each other on facilities we provide for each other. "Protect the children" has again been used ultraselectively to infantize our adults.
These public access terminals are used disproportionately by the poor, the excluded, the homeless, the technically disinclined. People dependent on the state for access to computers they can't afford and/or operate themselves. This act forces network-disadvantaged people out of the revolution in free assembly and expression that is endrunning around the other barriers life and Congress has erected against their success.
These House members are clearly dependent on their manageable relationship, no matter how dysfunctional, with corporate mass media, which mediates between them and us, and more importantly among us. Social networking kicks the middleman to the curb, and takes along with them the politicians joined at their hips. Which demonstrates how important is social networking in keeping our country for ourselves, rather than letting our fascist government and corporate masters dispense it at their convenience.