Two Year Sentence for Cyberbullying Proposed

HR 1966, the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act proposed by Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Los Angeles is a grandstand attempt to curb electronic speech that's intent is to “coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person.” This loosely named 'electronic speech' includes email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones and text messages. The bill is now before the House Judiciary Committee.

The bill is a response to the Lori Drew case, prosecuted for cyberbullying 13 year old Megan Meier who then committed suicide. Drew was prosecuted under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and declared she violated MySpace's ToS.

The Cyberbullying Prevention Act clearly goes beyond common sense and into the ridiculous. Sure, it's a noble cause, but why not put the energy and effort into prevention instead of a band-aid bill that will infringe upon the rights of every US citizen?

This is as tenuous and ill-defined as the argument that watching too much TV causes violence in children. Never once did the do-gooders ever suggest watching no TV at all, a sure-fire way to prevent violence in children, wouldn't you say? If they did that, the consumer market would break down, at least for outlandish toys and cereals, candies, drinks and snacks, not to mention video games and clothing fads that are driven, perpetuated and sustained by TV advertising. Depending on which group of scientists receive the pay is how the studies side, yay or nay. The same thing hasn't even begun yet about the social effects of Internet communication and we've already got a band out to step on our rights.

It wouldn't be much to silence the American people completely by adopting this act. While Obama credits his use of the Web for his election, it is also powerful enough in reverse to be perceived as a threat to his government. That is how it should be!

As much as advertising and big business has tried, they cannot infiltrate online communication enough to control it. The status quo is threatened, as is the capitalist economy and consumer society. They have managed to whittle away at the newspapers and magazines that were the biggest threat and now have no choice but to attack our one freedom of speech left to us: The Internet.

I think I will stock up on rotten tomatoes so I will have them on hand to throw at the idiots who continuously work to deny us our rights. Hey, I'll see you in prison.

Update: According to my site statistics, someone from housegate10.house.gov located in Manassas, Virginia viewed this article 4 times. Now, if that ain't proof that Big Brother is watching, I don't know what is!