Republican Platform To Include Internet Freedom Plank

First time accepted submitter jay.madison writes "The new Republican Party platform includes language which promises action to promote freedom on the Internet. The move is being driven by Rand Paul's libertarian wing of the party. The text, which is still in draft form, says Republicans will work to guarantee that 'individuals retain the right to control the use of their data by third parties,' and that 'personal data receives full constitutional protection from government overreach.' Republicans would resist moves toward international governance of the Internet, and seek to 'remove regulatory barriers that protect outdated technologies and business plans from innovation and competition, while preventing legacy regulation from interfering with new technologies such as mobile delivery of voice and video data as they become crucial components of the Internet ecosystem.' The platform is due to be adopted at the Republican National Convention next week."

Comments

Re:Not so fast

[OzPeter]

They also claim they are going to make the Internet Family Friendly,

Maybe somewhat off topic but I saw a humorous story on CNN this morning. They did a piece on the strip clubs in Tampa getting ready for the Republican convention this coming week - including one club owner who said he spent $1.5 million on upgrades. Apparently strip clubs do well at these events, and CNN quoted some informal poll that suggested Republicans spent 3 times as much on "Adult" entertainment than Democrats at the last two national conventions of each party.
 
Other fun facts include a club bringing in a Sarah Palin look-a-like stripper and comments from another stripper who hoped to be making $1000/hr.

Re:Internet Freedom is not what you think

[mozumder]

"Freedom" these days means corporate control. The more "freedom" people have, the more corporations have power. Power has to go somewhere, so if power is taken away from government, it goes to the next powerful entity - corporations. The last place power goes to is to individuals. The only power individuals have is their ability to collectively gather and form a government, which in effect limits their own individual power.

An individual limiting their own power is a good thing.

"Freedom" at this point is a bad word. Adults already know that no one has "freedom". No one has ever had "freedom", from the times when kings existed to any democracy. They simply replaced one ruler (a king) with another (big govt), especially with millions of laws in place, each one designed to take away one less right.

And even when kings existed, they never had full power as well. Kings have always had to rely on public support to maintain their power, especially during the rise of the merchant middle class in the 1100's.

Let's remember that every libertarian "freedom" fighter with a 3rd grade educations is actually saying "I want to give corporations more power over competing smaller entities, including individuals."

This is why one must NEVER be a libertarian, and one must always believe in forceful social controls.

And that we must always fight against "freedom" that the Republican party wants, and their insane ego that causes them to feel they should have "freedom."

Let's transfer power away from individuals, and give them more to government. Redistribute power. It's a good thing.

Re:Look at ninety percent of the effort towards go

[DJRumpy]

My thoughts exactly. I would be more intersted in a plank that promised net neutrality rather than protecting users data.

The remainder of the Repbulican plank reads like something from the 1800's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/22/opinion/what-the-gop-platform-represents.html

Vaguely promising to protect your personal data, while including language that puts the police state in your bedroom isn't exactly what I would call a fair trade.

Re:Decoding the code speak

[WaywardGeek]

By "removing regulatory barriers", they mean Verizon can stop suing the FCC because the GOP plans to give Verizon what they want: the right to censor the internet in any way they choose, which Verizon considers a matter of corporate free speech.

Re:Look at ninety percent of the effort towards go

[khallow]

Laws can't make legal actions retroactively illegal. They can make illegal actions retroactively legal. Classic example are the numerous immigration amnesties passed over the years.

Now, you might be right about the wrongness of making illegal actions retroactively legal, but that's not something built into the US system. You would need an amendment for that.