Senate to Vote on Requiring Social Media to Report Suspicious Activity to Feds

While the FEDS crack down on Jade Helm 15. A new tyranny dawns the “shutting down” of social media accounts from Alternative Media. Once such gets shut down, voices will go unheard and the powers that be have a better shot at pushing their agenda.

On Wednesday July 15th, 2015, the Senate will vote on a measure that would require social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to report suspected terrorist activity to Federal authorities. This is part of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2016.

While the feds say this is to protect social media companies who do report, and not a way to coerce them into spying, the measure specifically calls on social media sites to proactively monitor sites for content instead of just removing it. The vague language of the bill combined with the government’s tendency to paint opponents as dangerous or terrorists leaves enough room for this bill to take on a life of its own very quickly.

“If it becomes law, their natural tendency will be to err on the side of reporting anything that might be characterized as ‘terrorist activity’ even if it is not. And their duty to report will chill speech on the Internet that relates to terrorism.” says Gregory Nojeim of the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Currently these sites remove questionable content as they are made aware of it. That means that if a user reports a post or a comment as a threat, Facebook, for example, investigates the report and then decides if they are going to remove it for breaking their terms of service, or if it can remain on the site. If YouTube users flag a video related to bomb making, YouTube may take it down. However, social media sites could soon be required to report these instances to Homeland Security and 17 other agencies. But the bill also requires social media to look for terrorist activity specifically. What does that mean exactly? Will they search for keywords? Will they monitor people who follow certain websites? Will they target people who speak certain languages or are located in specific areas of the world?

Source: Activist Post: Senate to Vote on Requiring Social Media to Report Suspicious Activity to Feds

Senate to Vote on Requiring Social Media to Report Suspicious Activity to Feds