How the TPP Could Lead to Worldwide Internet Censorship

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On Monday, we learned that global “leaders” had come to an agreement on the infamous Trans Pacific Partnership, or TPP. While discouraging, this doesn’t mean the game is over — far from it.

Although politicians have come to a secret agreement, this democracy killing, corporate monstrosity still has to pass the U.S. Congress. So it’s now up to all of us to create an insurmountable degree of opposition and make sure this thing is dead on arrival.

The more I learn about the TPP, the more horrified I become. In case you need to get up to speed, check out the following:

U.S. State Department Upgrades Serial Human Rights Abuser Malaysia to Include it in the TPP

Julian Assange on the TPP – “Deal Isn’t About Trade, It’s About Corporate Control”

Trade Expert and TPP Whistleblower – “We Should Be Very Concerned about What’s Hidden in This Trade Deal”

As the Senate Prepares to Vote on “Fast Track,” Here’s a Quick Primer on the Dangers of the TPP

If that wasn’t enough to concern you, here’s the latest revelation.

From Common Dreams:

The “disastrous” pro-corporate trade deal finalized Monday could kill the Internet as we know it, campaigners are warning, as they vow to keep up the fight against the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement between the U.S. and 11 Pacific Rim nations.

“Internet users around the world should be very concerned about this ultra-secret pact,” said OpenMedia’s digital rights specialist Meghan Sali. “What we’re talking about here is global Internet censorship. It will criminalize our online activities, censor the Web, and cost everyday users money. This deal would never pass with the whole world watching—that’s why they’ve negotiated it in total secrecy.”

If that part isn’t obvious by now, I don’t know what is.

TPP opponents have claimed that under the agreement, “Internet Service Providers could be required to ‘police’ user activity (i.e. police YOU), take down Internet content, and cut people off from Internet access for common user-generated content.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) Maira Sutton wrote on Monday, “We have no reason to believe that the TPP has improved much at all from the last leaked version released in August, and we won’t know until the U.S. Trade Representative releases the text. So as long as it contains a retroactive 20-year copyright term extensionbans on circumventing DRMmassively disproportionate punishments for copyright infringement, and rules that criminalize investigative journalists and whistleblowers, we have to do everything we can to stop this agreement from getting signed, ratified, and put into force.”

Furthermore, “The fact that close to 800 million Internet users’ rights to free expression, privacy, and access to knowledge online hinged upon the outcome of squabbles over trade rules on cars and milk is precisely why digital policy consideration[s] do not belong in trade agreements,” Sutton added, referring to the auto and dairy tariff provisions that reportedly held up the talks.

“Successive leaks of the TPP have demonstrated that unless you are a big business sector, the [U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR] simply doesn’t care what you have to say,” wrote EFF’s Jeremy Malcolm.

“If you like your freedom of speech, you can keep your freedom of speech.”

Brace yourselves for Obamatrade.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

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7 thoughts on “How the TPP Could Lead to Worldwide Internet Censorship”

  1. i’m of the mindset that the rockerefellers control congress and this will most certainly pass.

    i think if you realize that the tor protocol was set up and still funded by the u.s. navy for helping feed dissidents non-blocked nodes so they can get around firewalls, the question is then——–how does this play into the oncoming internet disaster that will be tpp.

    there will be some winners some losers and mostly a lot of sheeple in the crossfire.

    the end of the free internet is already here, but what is next is perhaps a level of control that is untenable.

    what happens is an escalation of punitive targeted ‘examples’. more aaron swartz’s. more of that guy who is now in lebanon , the punk hacker guy who came out and tried starting his own ‘short fund’ .

    before societies get pushed to the brink, those dissidents who possess substance and talent will be removed. only when the last of these are removed can things then descend towards the center malebolge. one that has defined historical political singularities….

    Reply
  2. Corrupt Congress gave the president unlimited power to make, break and change treaties. The TPP already contains the UN’s agenda of censoring the internet. Why would any fool vote for a member of congress to president???

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  3. I’ve got the impression that “feminism” has already been weaponized for the purpose of online censorship. Consider the most recent UN “Violence against Women and Girls” report. Although it was roundly denounced for shit research, there’s a lot more coming from that direction.

    Here are the notes and reports dug up by some ornery 4channer — he’s an asshole but he does good research — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK7nnL11dIE .

    The TPP is just a legal framework for this to happen, it is powerless without a degree of popular support. Radical feminism and the yarn of “rape culture” is the current candidate to convince the public that they really need this.

    The rabbit hole just got deeper.

    Reply

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