Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer
Big government pushes for total taxation and restriction on the last great
outpost of free speech
reddit_url='http://infowars.net/articles/may2007/050607Internet.htm'
reddit_title='Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer'
digg_title = 'Internet Doomsday Creeps Closer'; digg_bodytext = ' Recent
proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in America
once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling taxation
and restriction on providers, traders and general users of the internet.' ;
digg_topic = 'politics';
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Monday, June 4, 2007 Email Print
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Recent proposals in the U.S. Congress are taking a huge swipe at freedom in
America once again by aiming to impose multiple different forms of crippling
taxation and restriction on users of the internet. State and local
governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes
on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net
shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other
Internet-service connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail,
reports CNet. Several bills were introduced last week that could see all
manner of new forms of internet taxation become a reality before the end of the
year. Sen. Michael Enzi, a Wyoming Republican, introduced a bill (PDF
link) for mandatory sales tax collection for Internet purchases, meaning that
if you buy items through online sites like eBay or Amazon.com, you might have
to start paying additional sales taxes on your purchases. The
Libertarian party has warned that the bill represents more big government
intervention and that while Enzi insists the bill "would not increase taxes,"
the Sales Tax Fairness and Simplification Act would open the door for states to
charge sales tax on Internet sales. In contrast to his statement, the C-Net
article states that Enzi warned that other taxes may zoom upward if his
"mandatory sales tax collection" bill isn't passed. In a second and separate
proposal during a House of Representatives hearing last week, politicians
weighed whether to let a temporary ban on internet access taxes lapse when it
expires on November 1. Such a move would leave open the possibility that
simply using the internet would require a tax to be paid which critics suggest
could sound a death knell for broadband, DSL and "always on" high speed
internet. Rep. Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia compared the move to
taxing people for simply entering shopping malls or libraries.
With the U.S. economy already under considerable strain, taking a huge swipe
at e-commerce, one of its cornerstones, seems like the worst possible thing
Congress could do. Furthermore, allowing taxation on internet access
represents a slippery slope towards opening up the possibilities of taxing all
kinds of internet based services. "They might say, 'We have no interest
in having taxes on e-mail,' but if we allow the prohibition on Internet taxes
to expire, then you open the door on cities and towns and states to tax e-mail
or other aspects of Internet access," said Sen. John Sununu, a New Hampshire
Republican. An email tax would certainly suit both the government and
internet providers who would likely get a cut. Last year it was revealed that
AOL is planning to charge mass-emailers a fee to avoid the ISP's spam filters
and guarantee that their marketing emails arrive straight in AOL subscribers'
inboxes. Yahoo! is also endorsing the scheme. Under
such a system email considered "uncertified" would risk running through AOL
and Yahoo!'s discrimination process. And as this potential profit center for
the two net giants takes off, there's no incentive for either company to
deliver the "free email" - and every incentive for them to get the world
conditioned to paying for guaranteed delivery.
A United Nations agency also proposed in 1999 the idea of a
1-cent-per-100-message tax, indicating that the idea has been floating around
for almost a decade. In recent months, a chorus of
propaganda intended to demonize the Internet and further lead it down a path of
strict control has spewed forth from numerous establishment organs:
Time magazine reported last month that researchers funded by the federal
government want to shut down the internet and start over, citing the fact that
at the moment there are loopholes in the system whereby users cannot be tracked
and traced all the time. The projects echo moves we have previously reported on
to clamp down on internet neutrality and even to designate a new form of the
internet known as Internet 2.
In a display of bi-partisanship, there have recently been calls for all out
mandatory ISP snooping on all US citizens by both Democrats and Republicans
alike.
Republican Senator John McCain recently tabled a proposal to introduce
legislation that would fine blogs up to $300,000 for offensive statements,
photos and videos posted by visitors on comment boards. It is well known that
McCain has a distaste for his blogosphere critics, causing a definite conflict
of interest where any proposal to restrict blogs on his part is concerned.
During an appearance with his wife Barbara on Fox News last November,
George Bush senior slammed Internet bloggers for creating an "adversarial and
ugly climate."
The White House's own recently de-classified strategy for "winning the war
on terror" targets Internet conspiracy theories as a recruiting ground for
terrorists and threatens to "diminish" their influence.
The Pentagon recently announced its effort to infiltrate the Internet and
propagandize for the war on terror.
In a speech last October, Homeland Security director Michael Chertoff
identified the web as a "terror training camp," through which "disaffected
people living in the United States" are developing "radical ideologies and
potentially violent skills." His solution is "intelligence fusion centers,"
staffed by Homeland Security personnel which will go into operation next year.
The U.S. Government wants to force bloggers and online grassroots
activists to register and regularly report their activities to Congress.
Criminal charges including a possible jail term of up to one year could be the
punishment for non-compliance.
A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of
America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet
file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down
the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government.
A landmark legal ruling in Sydney goes further than ever before in setting
the trap door for the destruction of the Internet as we know it and the end of
alternative news websites and blogs by creating the precedent that simply
linking to other websites is breach of copyright and piracy.
The European Union, led by former Stalinist and potential future British
Prime Minister John Reid, has also vowed to shut down "terrorists" who use the
Internet to spread propaganda.
The EU data retention bill, passed last year after much controversy and
with implementation tabled for late 2007, obliges telephone operators and
internet service providers to store information on who called who and who
emailed who for at least six months. Under this law, investigators in any EU
country, and most bizarrely even in the US, can access EU citizens' data on
phone calls, sms', emails and instant messaging services.
The EU also recently proposed legislation that would prevent users from
uploading any form of video without a license.
The US government is also funding research into social networking sites and
how to gather and store personal data published on them, according to the New
Scientist magazine. "At the same time, US lawmakers are attempting to force the
social networking sites themselves to control the amount and kind of
information that people, particularly children, can put on the sites."
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The development of a new form of internet with new regulations is also
designed to create an online caste system whereby the old internet hubs would
be allowed to break down and die, forcing people to use the new taxable,
censored and regulated world wide web.
Make no mistake, the internet, one of the greatest outposts of free speech
ever created is under constant attack by powerful people who cannot operate
within a society where information flows freely and unhindered. Both American
and European moves mimic stories we hear every week out of State Controlled
Communist China, where the internet is strictly regulated and virtually exists
as its own entity away from the rest of the web.
The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its
eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize
power and subjugate their populations under a surveillance panopticon prison.
http://www.infowars.net/articles/june2007/050607Internet.htm
---------------------------------
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