Pages

2012-06-18

Assemblyman Conte: Turning the Spotlight on Cyber-Bullying

Vatic note:  Its always good to have these peoples photos and to keep them, so we know on a very personal level who is gutting our sovereign God  Given rights from the Constitution,  Nazi Germany 1934, anyone?.  


By: Kurt Nimmo  Infowars
Date: 2012-05-24

                                                                                  
Jim Conte, a New York Republican, has declared himself an enemy of the First Amendment and the Constitution. He is pushing the so-called Internet Protection Act, legislation that would make it illegal to post anonymously on the internet under the guise of protecting children who are victims of “cyber bullying.”


State Republican Senator Tom O’Mara introduced the legislation on May 3.
In addition to banning bully speech and speech critical of business, Conte’s bill will make it a crime to post “mean-spirited and baseless political attacks.” If passed, the legislation will produce a massive chilling effect on political speech in the state.

New York state government is attempting to pass the measure in both the Senate and the Assembly. The legislation has been referred to the Codes Committee in the Senate, and the Government Operations Committee in the Assembly. 

Both proposals are identical and would effect messages posted on message boards, blogs, social networks, and “any other discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages.” The law would require websites to post email addresses for “removal requests, clearly visible in any sections where comments are posted.” Those demanding the removal of content they find objectionable, however, would have their anonymity protected.

“Had the internet been around in the late 1700s, perhaps the anonymously written Federalist Papers would have to be taken down unless Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay revealed themselves,” notes David Kravets, writing for Wired.

Conte and O’Mara represent the current generation of authoritarian-minded statist politicians who exploit children in order to ram through draconian proposals.



“With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information, it is imperative that the legislature put into place some type of safeguard to prevent people from using the Internet’s cloak of anonymity to bully our children and make false accusations against local businesses and elected officials,” he writes on his tax payer funded web page.


If you live in New York, call or fax your “representative” now and demand that this atrocious legislation be defeated. Only a loud chorus of protest will force the spineless, Constitution-hating career politicians in New York from passing Conte’s bill.

The bill in New York has serious ramifications for the rest of the web, especially if web servers are located in that state. It may also be used as a template on the federal level.

It is no mistake Conte’s legislation specifically mentions political speech, especially free speech directed at “elected officials” who are contemptuous of criticism and efforts to change the government or drastically reduce its power and keep it in check, as the founders knew it must be if tyranny is not to gain a foothold.

++++++++++++++

What appeared to be a simple opinion piece by NYS Assemblyman Jim Conte, has grown into an international news story.  Historically, LIPolitics.com viewers read a post on our blog, jump to two or more stories, then move on leaving nothing more than a Google Analytics trail to show their presence.

When we posted this piece, we expected the same.  However, to date, this is one of our most viewed posts, outside of an election cycle, which was linked to several national and international internet news blogs, including Huff Post NEW YORK.


Assemblyman Conte: Turning the Spotlight on Cyber-Bullying

Earlier this month, I joined several of my legislative colleagues to promote the Internet Protection Act (A.8688/S.6779). The legislation, which I am sponsoring, seeks to combat cyber-bullying by allowing the victim of an anonymous Website posting to request that the post be removed if the anonymous source is unwilling to attach his or her name to it.

Too often, online bullies hide behind their anonymity as they inflict pain. My legislation turns the spotlight on cyber-bullies by forcing them to reveal their identity or have their post removed. Once a bully is identified, steps can be taken to end the harassment. Bullying is no laughing matter. The more we can do to combat this abuse, the better off we will all be as a society.

In addition to cracking down on cyber-bullying, the bill also prevents people from posting anonymous criticism of local businesses. Too often, rival businesses will post negative and false posts to hurt their competition. With more and more people turning to online reviews, it is important to ensure that the posted information, good or bad, is from actual customers and not rival competitors.

Finally, the legislation will help cut down on the types of mean-spirited and baseless political attacks that add nothing to the real debate and merely seek to falsely tarnish the opponent’s reputation by using the anonymity of the Web. By removing these posts, this bill will help to ensure that there is more accurate information available to voters on their prospective candidates, giving them a better assessment of the candidates they have to choose from.

With more and more people relying on social media and the Internet to communicate and gather information, it is imperative that the legislature put into place some type of safeguard to prevent people from using the Internet’s cloak of anonymity to bully our children and make false accusations against local businesses and elected officials.

Jim Conte
Member of the Assembly
10th District


The article is reproduced in accordance with Section 107 of title 17 of the Copyright Law of the United States relating to fair-use and is for the purposes of criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.

1 comment:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Vatic Clerk Tips: After 7 days, all comments to an article go into the moderation queue for approval which happens at least once a day. Please be patient.

Be respectful in your comments, keeping in mind that these discussions will become the Zeitgeist of our time that future database archeologists will discover. Make your comments worthy and on the founding father's level in their respectfulness, reasoning, and sound argumentation. Prove we weren't all idiots in our day and age. Comments that advocate sedition or violence are not encouraged. Racist, ad hominem, and troll-baiting comments might never see the light of day.