McCain vs. The Blogosphere

According to Think Progress, John McCain doesn't want you to comment on my blog.

McCain has made clear that he doesn’t like the blogosphere.

Now he has introduced legislation that would treat blogs like Internet service providers and hold them responsible for all activity in the comments sections and user profiles. Some highlights of the legislation:

– Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

– Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

— Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” — such as deleting user profiles — to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

Kevin Bankston of the Electronic Frontier Foundation notes that this proposal may be based more “on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts.” When he introduced his legislation to the Senate, McCain offered no evidence that children are being victimized by people who post comments on blogs.

McCain’s legislation could deal a serious blow to the blogosphere. Lacking resources to police their sites, many individual blogs may have to shut down open discussion.

Not that this particular blog has a lot to worry about; based on my comment count, I don't get enough to warrant interest from the likes of a would-be right-wing suck-up who thinks that the only good blogs are the ones on the right that either don't allow comments or ban commenters who disagree with them. (Gee, did I type that out loud?)

But you have to wonder what could possibly be gained by coming up with this kind of idea other than to demonstrate that his knowledge of the internet is only slightly ahead of Sen. Ted Stevens and his series of tubes description. Could it be that he's trying so desperately to get the bluenoses on the right to like him after pissing them off in 2000? Is he that shallow?

Feel free to comment...

(HT to Shakespeare's Sister.)