On Monday night, Tucker Carlson, the ratings leader in cable news, used his show to caution Americans about a bipartisan bill that seeks to prohibit TikTok — known as the RESTRICT Act. He emphasized how this measure would grant federal authorities excessive power over cyberspace if passed.
“The bill is ostensibly about protecting American national security and ending ‘foreign adversaries’ from interfering in our elections through apps like TikTok. Because of course, election interference from Twitter and Facebook is no problem at all, but election interference through TikTok is totally unacceptable,” Carlson began.
“But in reality, if you are opposed to TikTok, as we are, this bill isn’t really about banning TikTok, it’s never about what they say it is,” he continued.
“Instead, this bill would give enormous and terrifying new powers to the federal government to punish American citizens and regulate how they communicate with one another.”
Carlson continued by elucidating that the legislation would enable the Director of National Intelligence and Department of Commerce, rather than an elected Congressperson, to determine who is considered a “foreign adversary.”
Carlson revealed how simply voicing a stance against the war in Ukraine could result in an American being imprisoned for 20 years – something which the DNI, or Department of Commerce views as interacting with “foreign adversaries”.
So if the Biden Administration decides that you are doing this, then the Secretary of Commerce can “enforce any mitigation measure to address any risk arising from any covered action by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.”
These transactions can cover future, past or potential future transactions. And the current mitigation measures include but are not limited to throwing American citizens in prison for 20 years.
So you would be allowing the Biden Administration to regulate speech on the Internet and if you are somehow involved with a “foreign adversary,” say oppose the war against Russia, you’d go to prison for 20 years.
In response to the alleged notion that this bill would help combat China, he argued that calling it the “Patriot Act of the internet” implies that America is becoming more similar to our communist counterparts in East Asia.
This is not an effort to push back against China, it is part of a strategy to make America much more like China, with the government in charge of what you read and see and with terrifying punitive powers at their fingertips.
We’ve seen this before from the national security state again and again. Confronted with a foreign adversary, for example, after 9/11, the federal government uses the opportunity to expand their police powers over the American population and they do it under false pretexts and they do it quickly by whipping people into a panic, usually that’s rooted in some truth.
These measures are not aimed at stopping the foreign threat, they are aimed at controlling the American population.
On Wednesday, conservative politician Greg Price publicized the contents of this bill via Twitter and deemed it as a way for the U.S. government to surveil any American classified as an “national security risk.” His conclusion is that every electronic device used by such individuals could be accessed with ease if this legislation passes.
“The bill to ban TikTok is absolutely terrifying. It gives the government the ability to go after anyone they deem as a national security risk at which point they can access everything from their computer to video games to their ring light,” Price wrote.
“This is a Patriot Act for the internet.”
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