The Digital Iron Curtain: How the RESTRICT Act Threatens to Devastate Privacy and Crush Free Speech Online

Activist Post ^ | March 28, 2023 | Matt Agorist

[Heartlander]

The Digital Iron Curtain: How the RESTRICT Act Threatens to Devastate Privacy and Crush Free Speech Online

This is going way past banning TikTok.

In an era where the world has become more Orwellian than Orwell himself could have ever imagined, it should come as no surprise that the US government is once again attempting to expand its stranglehold on individual liberty. Enter Senate Bill 686, also known as the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act (RESTRICT Act). Far from being the limited TikTok ban it purports to be, the RESTRICT Act represents an unprecedented expansion of government power and surveillance, reaching into nearly every aspect of our digital lives.

Make no mistake, this piece of legislation is the "Patriot Act on steroids." The RESTRICT Act would seemingly grant the US government total control over all devices connected to the internet, including cars, Ring cameras, refrigerators, Alexa devices, and your phone. It goes beyond the pale, with the end goal being nothing short of a complete invasion of your privacy.

Under the guise of national security, the RESTRICT Act targets not only TikTok but all hardware, software, and mobile apps used by more than one million people. This means that anything from your Google Home device to your smartphone could be subject to government monitoring and control.

Should you dare to defy the RESTRICT Act, you'll face devastating consequences. Violators can be slapped with a 20-year prison sentence, civil forfeiture, and denied freedom of information requests. All this, mind you, for simply trying to maintain some semblance of privacy in your own home.

The insidious nature of the RESTRICT Act doesn't stop there. As reported by @underthedesknews, the bill's proponents are also seeking to undermine Section 230 and limit free speech. The implications are clear: this legislation is not about protecting Americans but rather about stripping away our rights and liberties.

The list of supporters for this draconian bill reads like a who's who of Big Government cheerleaders and like all attacks on freedom, it has bipartisan support. Among them are Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Sen. John Thune, R-N.D., National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and nine Democratic co-sponsors such as Hillary Clinton's former VP pick, Tim Kaine, and U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin.

It's time to call this bill what it truly is: an all-out assault on individual freedom and privacy. The RESTRICT Act would usher in an era of unparalleled state control over our digital lives, a nightmare scenario that even George Orwell would have struggled to imagine,

We must stand united against this abomination of a bill, lest we allow our government to transform the internet into a dystopian surveillance state. The RESTRICT Act represents the antithesis of the free and open web we have come to cherish, and it must be stopped before it's too late.

In the past, it was outraged citizens who rose to the challenge and struck down this huge step toward the police state. And we can do it again.

Share this article with your friends and family and ask them to call their representative now, and tell them to oppose this Orwellian legislation.

[Bratch]

FBI Ran to Senate Intel Committee for Discussions of Trump Posture Following Reports of Looming Manhattan DA Indictment

March 29, 2023 | Sundance | 168 Comments

If you have followed the construct of the Fourth Branch of Government, you will note the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and current Democrat Chairman Mark Warner play(ed) a key role in the political weaponization of the intelligence apparatus.

In 2015 and 2016, it was the SSCI who were at the tip of the spear in the legislative branch at supporting what Chuck Schumer called the “seven ways to Sunday” approach used by the U.S. intelligence community to target anyone viewed as a threat against their interests. The larger Intelligence Community (IC) is a close alliance of the SSCI as a fictitious oversight mechanism; however, in reality the relationship is co-dependent enabling.

The SSCI constructed the weaponized political agenda of the IC, the SSCI supports the weaponized political agenda of the IC, and the SSCI holds the powerful position of confirmation over anyone who would work in the top tier of the IC. In short, the weaponized IC cannot exist without the support of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Their relationship is symbiotic.

You will note the evidence of this relationship shows up in the coordination between the SSCI and the weaponized Trump-Russia targeting operation, also known as the Trump-Russia investigation. More recently, the purpose of the SSCI as an institution to support weaponized government, appears in the Twitter files as outlined by Matt Taibbi, and the efforts of The Dept of Homeland Security (DHS), FBI and CISA to control speech and content within the platform.

Additionally, it is not coincidental the “TicTok ban” legislation (SB686), which is a fraudulent auspice for total internet control by the intelligence community, comes from within bipartisan legislation spearheaded by the aligned interests of Senator Warner, the SSCI and DHS. None of this is accidental, and the legislative branch is walking into the creation of an online control mechanism that has nothing whatsoever to do with banning TikTok.

In very simple and direct terms, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence represents the most entrenched and dangerous institution within the current construct of government. Without the full support of the SSCI, the various agencies within a weaponized U.S. government could not exist.

The SSCI is the core enterprise within the center of the system of weaponized government. This is the Senate group stripping away freedom and installing the surveillance state every single day.

A recent story in Reuters about the FBI running to the SSCI, what they call a “briefing”, is the latest example of how the foot soldiers of the weaponized state, in this example the FBI, report to their control officers within the SSCI.

WASHINGTON, March 26 (Reuters) – U.S. Senator Mark Warner said on Sunday he was briefed by the FBI on Donald Trump’s rhetoric after the former president verbally lashed out at a New York prosecutor overseeing a grand jury investigation into alleged hush-money payments.

“I have been briefed by the FBI. They say they are fully prepared,” Warner, a Democrat and the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told CNN on Sunday. “They have seen no specific threats but the level of rhetoric on some of these right-wing sites has increased.” (read more)

Once you know how bad the corruption is within government, you can understand what the motives and agenda are for those elected politicians who control the levers of power within it.   It is information in, from and around the SSCI that coordinates the daily political activity we see every day as it relates to the oppressive law enforcement and manipulative schemes within a weaponized justice system.

A weaponized DOJ, FBI and Intelligence Community, the ‘six ways to Sunday’ group, could not exist without the support of the SSCI.  The weaponized justice system could not exist without the support of the SSCI.  Keep peeling back the layers and layers of weaponized issues, and you will always find yourself on the doorstep of the SSCI.   Who ‘watches the watchers’? Who ‘guards the guards’…. The SSCI is the issue here!

The people in/around Washington DC, those who still hold some concept of a moral compass, are scared to death of this weaponized system.

Things are escalating very quickly now…. the broader awakening is happening much faster now… the American people are becoming increasingly aware now…. and that means this weaponized system of government is even more dangerous than ever before.

I will share more on what this means for all of us very soon, but rest assured nothing at the end of this path is good.   However, that said, I am willing to take it head on. More later….

On March 2, 2023, the people in control of the Joe Biden administration officially announced that government control of internet content was now officially a part of the national security apparatus. [White House Link] If you have followed the history of how the Fourth Branch of Government has been created, you will immediately recognize the intent of this new framework.

The “National Cybersecurity Strategy” aligns with, supports, and works in concert with a total U.S. surveillance system, where definitions of information are then applied to “cybersecurity” and communication vectors.  This policy is both a surveillance system and an information filtration prism where the government will decide what is information, disinformation, misinformation and malinformation, then act upon it.

Now put this executive branch fiat together with  Senate Bill 686 [SB686 HERE], “The Restrict Act”, also known as the bipartisan bill to empower the executive branch to shut down TikTok.

The Restrict Act, has very little to do with TikTok and everything to do with the United States government controlling online content.  If you read the bill, what you quickly discover is that congress is giving the Commerce Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence the power to shut down internet content they view as against their interests.

[mewzilla]

BTTT.

[mewzilla]

Related...

The 𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒍 Gov't Ban Hiding Behind The TikTok Ban ~ The Restrict Act would allow the Feds ACCESS to all the Data on our devices, including Ring and Home Security Apps... And it will be a Crime to use a Privacy Device or App. They've Gone Full 1984.

[mewzilla]

BTTT.

[Apogee]

Yes we now live behind a silicon curtain.

I wish I remembered who or where I first saw that phrase, but it sure seems better than Digital Iron Curtain to me. I suspect it will be much harder to tear down than the iron and bamboo curtains.

I admit confusion about your commentary about Tik Tok and the First Amendment. Not liking it or banning it are not necessarily banning free speech, but free collection of information by avowed enemies. I have no problem with getting rid of it. The problem I have with the legislation is that it is not necessary for doing so, and it seems to be merely a pretext for actually doing the opposite of its supposed purpose, as most bills do, by increasing the surveillance upon the populace. How about no to all of it? Surveillance by Chicoms is not necessarily more RESTRICTive to liberty than surveillance by an unelected cadre of self-professed betters.