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Codebreaker

Week of anti-CISPA protests begin

John Moe Apr 16, 2012


Well, buckle up. It’s going to be a bumpy ride. Today marks the start of a week of planned protests against the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act or CISPA, the controversial new cybersecurity legislation being pushed forward in the House. The bill calls for sharing of security data between the government and private companies to improve security. Critics charge that it would open the door for a sort of intelligence-industrial complex to spy on people. Groups opposed to CISPA are trying to protest this bill just like they did with the controversial SOPA measure shot down in January.

Hillicon Valley reports:

Many of the groups leading the protest are veterans of the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Free Press, Fight for the Future and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Brock Meeks, a spokesman for the Center for Democracy and Technology, said the protest will rely on similar tactics as the ones used to derail the anti-piracy bills, potentially including petitions and phone calls to members of Congress.

But he said the groups have no plans to blackout websites, which was a central component of the anti-piracy protests.  

Might be a little tougher to protest this one since many of the big tech companies opposed to SOPA are in favor of CISPA.

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