The Bi-Partisan RESTRICT Act (TikTok Ban) criminalizes using a VPN with up to 20 years in prison, and gives the government broad unchecked surveillance powers
I have approved your post after speaking with the other mods.
We, the mods, believe that while the video and comments from OP may not be fully covering everything that we should worry about with the RESTRICT Act going through Congress and potentially going to the President to be signed into law.
Some additional resources for this issue:
The bill itself: https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686/text
NOTE: The bill itself makes no mention of T1kT0k or Byt3D@nce… meaning that this issue is super broad and could potentially mean major fines and jail time for regular, normal, legal uses for Homelabs.
https://reason.com/2023/03/31/the-restrict-act-would-restrict-a-lot-more-than-tiktok/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RESTRICT_Act
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/124oy4j/whats_going_on_with_the_restrict_act/
https://www.reddit.com/r/collapse/comments/12688ki/the_insanely_broad_restrict_act_could_ban_much/
https://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/126vvxk/the_restrict_act_is_a_death_knell_for_online/
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/127geab/ladies_and_gentlmen_i_introduce_to_you_the/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/125wfob/s686_restrict_act/
I don’t know why more people are not talking about this.
It also allows the government the ability to block any website they want, without any kind of oversight, or vote. The gov could decide to block Reddit tomorrow and this bill would give them the power to do that.
Even better, it allows industry lobbyists to sit on the committee that decides what websites get banned!
It also allows the government to “review” any of your electronic data, without any warrant. They could decide to review your ring footage and ring must comply without telling you.
It defines a punishment of circumventing USA’s new “great firewall” (ie: using a VPN) with a prison sentence of 20 years and up to $1,000,000 fine. And that is not only for the user, but also the vpn provider. These companies would cease to operate in the United States.
You cannot even FOIA any information as to how the powers in this act are being used.
This has nothing to do with TikTok. I do not use TikTok, or care to use it. But this is fucking awful. What abhorrent bi-partisan mess.
I am not a fan of TikTok, however, this is a HUGE power grab by the government. It needs to be stopped.
I called my local news agency and explained it all they asked me for an email so they could discuss it in their morning meeting… thought this would be good to share here
Dear YourLocalNewsAgency,
I am writing to bring attention to a bill recently introduced in the Senate, which could have significant implications for privacy and free speech. The “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act” (RESTRICT Act) seeks to prevent foreign adversaries from obtaining or controlling critical infrastructure and information and communication technology entities in the United States that could be used to threaten national security.
While the initial aim of this bill is to ban TikTok, the broad language in the RESTRICT Act could criminalize the use of a VPN, impacting access to security tools and other applications that vulnerable people rely on for privacy and security. Many individuals and organizations, including journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, use VPNs to protect their online activity from surveillance and censorship. The RESTRICT Act would expose these groups to monitoring and repression, which would have a chilling effect on free speech and expression.
Of particular concern is the line in the bill that states, “No person may fail or refuse to comply with any reporting or recordkeeping requirement of this Act, or any regulation, order, direction, mitigation measure, prohibition, or other authorization or directive issued thereunder.” This is the primary purpose of what a VPN does.
I urge you to provide coverage on this important issue, as I believe many people are not aware of its potential impact on our freedom of speech.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
A Concerned Resident
It’s obvious that they’ve wanted this sort of restrictive, controlling legislation for years. But it’s anti-freedom, anti-consumer, very difficult to get approved.
But timing is everything. Now there’s an opportunity. Now there’s an enemy, a threat. People aren’t interested in dull legislature unless some relevant detail perks their attention. But the details are small compared to China.
The great firewall of America is here!
We need to spread this information like a fire.
This is what fascism looks like.
I fully understand that my language is alarmist, and these are big claims. But please just watch the video. This guy has been lobbying for right to repair legislation for decades, one of the very few people that are fighting for the consumer
He is directly reading the source bill as it stands right now. My post is in no way hyperbolic. This is being advocated for by MO Senator Josh Hawley, from my home state
What would they do about the amount of companies that need VPNs just for their business purposes?
I find it funny that we want to ban tick toc but in order to do so we pass a law to control the internet in the exact same way that China already does. If you cant beat them….become them apparently.
I think in this day and age the truth is really important. Yes this bill is batshit (in my opinion) but it’s a misrepresentation to say VPN use is a 20 yr deal in jail.
Here’s what techdirt has to say
To be clear: there’s basically no way this bill is going to be used against a person using a VPN. That is an exaggeration and something of a misreading of the bill.
It’s still a bad bill
Disappointed to see alarmism pinned on a sub I rely on not being politically motivated
Edit: Also this hasn’t even made it out of committee. Meaning it hasn’t even made it to the floor for a vote.
Any elected official can sponsor a bill. I could write a bill saying every adult has a bedtime of 9pm on weekdays. It’s an idiotic bill. But because it got sponsored it goes to committee. There’s been zero vote and hundreds of bills die in committee each year.
I love how politicians write bills (to become law) with little to know understanding of what they are writing the bill for… I’m not even go on rant about it like I would normally do.
I’d get better results yelly at a brick wall.
The political system is just a huge garbage fire.
Its wrong to assume that this wont make it into UK, EU and rest of the world if it passes in US without enough noise. Both also have an Online Safety Bill in the works. Same vague overreach thing. We likely share lobbyists as well as we do corporations. Funny that totalitarian states are lowest common denominator for internet laws. Mod, please consider pinning OPs post.
carnivore, echelon, FISC, nothing to see here
Anyone else think it would be a good idea to make this congress.gov or something similar to it. That allows for registered users/verified users (ensuring that the users vote is tied to the state they live in) to vote in order to gather data of what the people in each state thinks, and cross reference the vote of the states representative?
Politicians always say they are representative of the people of states majority… But would it be nice to see some actual live, ongoing hard data?
I mean it’s 2023 folks. I’d rather my tax $s go to something that supports transparency then a number of other sections of the government. something like this could be budgeted in for prob around $200-300 million over 5years. That’s a fraction of a fraction of a percent that goes into military… Every year.
And it’s not like they are using that $ to pay and support our vets.
This is really bad. It’s quite sad that the fear of a banana republic like china makes the US government turn the US into something akin to china itself. Surely this is the much larger evil here. The biggest issue is that most people in government are probably not even tech savvy enough to understand what they are actually supporting, and neither is the average person in the wider public.
And those that are must be straight up evil if they support this garbage of a bill.
Going to be hilarious industry reaction if work VPNs are all banned.
If they ban VPNs expect all working from home to stop. The VPN big players will probably be lobbying them that its a stupid idea.