Post Syndicated from Robert Graham original http://blog.erratasec.com/2016/05/the-eff-is-orwellian-as-fuck.html
As this blog has documented many times * * * *, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is exactly the populist demagogues that Orwell targets in his books 1984 and Animal Farm. Today, the EFF performed yet another amusingly Orwellian stunt. Urging the FCC to regulate cyberspace, it cites the exact law that it had previously repudiated.
Specifically, the EFF frequently champions the document Declaration of Independence of Cyberspace, written by one of its founders, John Perry Barlow. This document says:
“Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone. You are not welcome among us. You have no sovereignty where we gather.”
Specifically, Barlow is talking about a then recent act of Congress:
In the United States, you have today created a law, the Telecommunications Reform Act, which repudiates your own Constitution and insults the dreams of Jefferson, Washington, Mill, Madison, DeToqueville, and Brandeis. These dreams must now be born anew in us.
That 1996 Act adds sections to the telcom laws, such as this portion:
Title II is amended by inserting after section 221 (47 U.S.C. 221) the following new section:
`SEC. 222. PRIVACY OF CUSTOMER INFORMATION.
Today, though, the EFF cites this section as to why the FCC should regulation Internet privacy:
The Commission has the Statutory Authority Under Both Section 222 and Section 705 to Protect Consumer Privacy.
So which is it? Does the EFF repudiate the law, and want government to avoid regulating cyberspace? Or does the EFF use that law to encourage government to regulate cyberspace? Both have their pros and cons, but you really can have only one.
Of course, EFF supporters claim both. It’s fascinating watching their doublethink follow the precise lines described by Orwell. They have no problems believing both ideas simultaneously. This shows that the real danger of totalitarianism isn’t the evil dictators who impose it from above, but the willing populace (like EFF supporters) who champion it from below.
In any case, it’s JPBarlow’s document that was correct. The world is rapidly moving to SSL by default, defeating broadband provider’s ability to invade their customer’s privacy. That broadband providers are invading customer privacy is mostly just a strawman argument by the EFF, fearmongering in an attempt to pass unneeded regulation.