To the Editor:
Sound the alarm over the Senate bill called, “Restricting the Emergence of Security Threats that Risk Information and Communications Technology Act” (RESTRICT Act of 2023) as another step towards dictatorship. Propagandized as the TikTok bill, the bill plays upon silly fears that the Communist Party of China are using social media for their evil plot to enslave Americans.
In reality, the RESTRICT Act is the latest attempt to criminalize free speech and jail or fine those Americans under the influence of “foreign adversaries." It would provide the government the ability to “punish American citizens and regulate how they communicate on the Internet.” The bill was introduced on March 7 in the Senate by Mark Warner (D-Va.) and John Thune (R-S.D.).
The House Committee on Financial Services issued a warning to reject the bill, stating that the RESTRICT Act “is using TikTok as a smokescreen for the largest expansion of executive power since IEEPA.” (Internal Emergency Economic Powers Act).
It remains to be seen whether Americans will be able to wake up to the dystopian reality that looms just beyond the horizon should the ratification of the RESTRICT Act proceed. For their sake, and everyone else’s, let’s hope so.
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While opposition so far is useful and should be further advanced to the bill shut down, the more direct arrow in the quiver would be Glass-Steagall and a Hamiltonian credit policy to take down the city of London and Wall Street, given that Big Tech has become the “private” intelligence agency of the transatlantic financier oligarchy, overseen by the overlords at NSA and the UK equivalent, the GCHQ. This financial and economic reform requires collaboration internationally — including emphatically with China — which would open the door for discussion and agreements on how to handle the issue of information infrastructure, products and services, and the inherent legitimate national security interests. And it should be obvious that the RESTRICT Act is the latest move to keep the information superhighway under the control of London’s Five Eyes, and part of the overall policy of decoupling with China.
Ron Wieczorek
Mitchell
The Trust Project
