Tag: Restrict Act

The Orwellian RESTRICT Act is a chilling echo of ‘1984’ and an erosion of American freedom

Via RT

Far beyond cracking down on TikTok, the bill envisages frightening powers to control citizens’ access to ‘unwanted’ information Ian Miles Cheong is a political and cultural commentator. His work has been featured on The Rebel, Penthouse, Human Events, and The Post Millennial. Ian Miles Cheong is a political and cultural commentator. His work has been featured on The Rebel, Penthouse, Human Events, and The Post Millennial. @stillgray@CultureWarRoomSupporters of TikTok listen during a news conference in front of the U.S. Capitol on March 22, 2023 in Washington, DC. © Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

In an eerie semblance to George Orwell’s ‘1984’, the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act, or RESTRICT Act, looms as a dark cloud over American liberties.

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Beware of the Restrict Act: Patriot Act for the Internet on Steroids

Guest Post by Robert Stark

There is a new bill to ban TikTok, that is not really about banning TikTok, that has gone under the radar until recently. The very Orwellian worded, “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology,” or RESTRICT act, has some very dangerous provisions. For instance, the act grants the Secretary of Commerce and Director of National Intelligence, the authority to label any foreign group or individual, an adversary of the United States, target any US citizen with associations to a particular foreign adversary as a threat to the “national interest,” and grants the State discretion to ban software and apps from nations deemed adversaries. The act would also criminalize the use of VPNs to access banned foreign apps, allows the Feds access to all online data without a warrant, and is worded so that the Freedom of Information act and congressional oversight would not apply to Restrict act cases and investigations, so no due process. Also any violations of this act would be tried exclusively in DC Appeals Court, which is one of the most partisan and politically biased courts in the nation.

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The RESTRICT Act Restricts More Than TikTok

Guest Post by Ron Paul

Supporters of expanding the federal police state have found a new boogeyman to scare the people into surrendering their liberty: TikTok. TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to upload their own videos. It is used by tens of millions of Americans and is one of the most popular websites in the world.

TikTok’s popularity and the fact that is owned by a Beijing-based company — ByteDance — has led to the spread of a claim that the site is controlled by the Chinese government. Thus the claim the Chinese government is using TikTok to collect data on US citizens.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner introduced last month the Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act (RESTRICT Act). The bill is being marketed as a way to protect Americans from foreign governments that use social media to spy on Americans.

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RESTRICT Act Is Orwellian Censorship Grab Disguised As Anti-TikTok Legislation

Via ZeroHedge

The RESTRICT Act, introduced by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Tom Thune (R-SD), is aimed at blocking or disrupting transactions and financial holdings linked to foreign adversaries that pose a risk to national security, however the language of the bill could be used to give the US government enormous power to punish free speech.

Warner, a longtime opponent of free speech who, as Michael Krieger pointed out in 2018 (and confirmed in the Twitter Files) pushed for the ‘weaponization’ of big tech, crafted the RESTRICT act to “ake swift action against technology companies suspected of cavorting with foreign governments and spies, to effectively vanish their products from shelves and app stores when the threat they pose gets too big to ignore,” according to Wired.

Bad actors listed in the bill are; China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia, and Venezuela.

In reality, the RESTRICT Act has very little to do with TikTok and everything to do with controlling online content.

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