Senator tries to ban Wikipedia and interactive sites


He doesn't understand it so it must be EVIL!
Senator Ted Stevens doesn't trust you or your children.

Here's the newest from Sen. Ted Stevens, the man who described the Internet as a series of tubes: It's time for the federal government to ban access to Wikipedia, MySpace, and social networking sites from schools and libraries.

Early in January, Stevens introduced Senate bill 49, which among other things, would require that any school or library that gets federal Internet subsidies would have to block access to interactive Web sites, including social networking sites, and possibly blogs as well. It appears that the definition of those sites is so vague that it could include sites such as Wikipedia, according to commentators. It would certainly ban MySpace.

The bill is, in part, a rehash of a similar bill introduced last year, the Deleting Online Predators Act, also called DOPA. That bill passed the house, but got bogged down in the Senate.

Many people are calling this year's bill "Son of DOPA" because of its similarity to last year's bill.

There are so many things wrong with this bill, it's hard to count them all. But its greatest irony would be banning Wikipedia -- perhaps the most widely used reference resource in the world -- from libraries and schools. I have plenty of problems with Wikipedia, including how easily it can be manipulated, and the way that student rely on it far too heavily. But ban an educational resource merely because it's interactive? If true, it's bizarre beyond comprehension.

You should know by now that anytime someone claims to want something "for the children" that they are aiming straight for your freedom.

The Tube Man is no exception.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Sat - February 17, 2007 at 03:05 PM  Tag


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