Could the RESTRICT Act (S. 686) Criminalize the Use of VPNs? (Yes)

Reason ^ | 3.29.2023 9:49 AM | ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Would the RESTRICT Act—a.k.a. the TikTok ban bill—criminalize the use of VPNs? That's the rumor floating around about the legislation, which was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Warner (D–Va.) earlier this month. Warner's office has said his bill wouldn't do this… but its broad language leaves room for doubt. And the act is still insanely far-reaching and could have a huge range of deleterious effects, even if it doesn't criminalize people using a VPN to access TikTok.

VPN stands for virtual private network, and there are several different kinds, but their general aim is the same: keeping your digital activities and location private. Using a VPN with your computer, phone, or another internet-enabled device can do things like mask your I.P. address and encrypt your internet connection. It's a great way to get around location-based firewalls (a.k.a. geoblocking) and other forms of internet censorship.

For this reason, VPNs are popular in countries that exercise authoritarian control over what their citizens can access online. It's sad that this contingent could soon include U.S. citizens, but include us it does, as both Republicans and Democrats get more and more gung-ho about banning the popular video platform TikTok.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R–Mo.) introduced one TikTok ban bill back in January. Hawley's bill would direct the president to use the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to specifically "block and prohibit all transactions" and to "prevent commercial operation of" TikTok parent company ByteDance in the U.S.

The latest legislation is more extensive—and even more invasive.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

S. 686 (just passed by the Senate) is Obama's Disinformation Governance Board (remember Nina Jankowicz?) on steroids.

The bill has nothing to do with Tik Tok and everything to do with criminalizing everything.

Read the bill in the link below.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/686/text?s=1&r=15

[2CAVTrooper]

That’s nice, most companies especially utility companies use VPN’s to help protect their networks.

[ConservativeInPA]

Is everyone here using a VPN to access and post on FR?

[packagingguy]

I don’t think this will survive a SCOTUS challenge.

“In Watkins v. United States (1957), NAACP v. Alabama (1958), Bates v. Little Rock (1960), and Gibson v. Florida Legislative Investigation Committee (1963), the court protected the anonymity of members of controversial groups to ensure their First Amendment right of association.”

https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/32/anonymous-speech

[E. Pluribus Unum]

We don’t have years to fight it.

[SuperLuminal]

”In your face” is our communist masters' favorite tool to rattle the chains of tyranny that they have wrapped around our necks...

No Big Deal!
Our communist masters know that the pathetically servile and indolent Aamerican people will just continue to roll over and spread their collective cheeks...

[TLI]

most companies especially utility companies use VPN’s to help protect their networks.

I would say almost ALL companies use VPN.

Pull that and the hackers will own the WORLD.

So, yeah, every now and then I see progs wanting to do something THAT stupid because they have no clue.

Like EPA wanting to ban... Argon??

Yep.

.

[frank ballenger]

Easier than asking here would be to ask the nearest FIB agent to tell you. /S

Just grim humor but how long did anyone think FREEDOM and PRIVACY involved in anything would be allowed to go on in this country?

[Labyrinthos]

Yes.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

If they get this bill passed, they can fine us a million dollars and put us in prison for twenty years for saying Trump won.

The final solution of criminalizing political opposition.

[PGR88]

Mark Warner is truly the Intel deep-state’s byatch in the Senate.

[Drew68]

the RESTRICT Act—a.k.a. the TikTok ban bill

a.k.a. the "Patriot Act for the Internet"

Anybody here on FR supporting this massive government overreach needs to have their head examined.

[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.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

They are going for all the marbles with this one.

If they get it, we are literally dead.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Nice post. Thanks.

[MAGAthon]

Jesse Watters covered this tonight US time. had amazing interview with Lindsey Graham. hope someone finds the video and posts it on FR.

[AnthonySoprano]

.
Mark Warner and Lindsey Graham are controlled by these entities.

Alphabet agencies.

Makes perfect sense.

.

[Brian Griffin]

The premise of forcing a sale of the US business of TikTok might result in the forced sale of American business interests overseas.

I suspect Big Tech USA works hand-in-hand with the US intelligence community.

TikTok is probably the PRC equivalent.

I type on this site as if every comment is read by a federal agent.

[PubliusMM]

This proposed legislation is despicable in its planning, and despicalble in its intent.

[Brian Griffin]

When it comes to the Internet, Big Brother’s helpers see and know all.

We are being read 24/7/365.