While Americans enjoy cookouts and fireworks every Fourth of July in honor of the great sacrifices and achievements of our forefathers, others around the world are not so fortunate. I recently watched the HBO documentary “For Neda [1]” about the symbolic face of last year’s freedom movement in Iran. It was intriguing to observe the important role of social media and technology in the freedom movement. I wonder how the recent Tea Party movements would sustain without the same tools.
While we are still worlds apart from Iran, legislation such as the “Internet Kill Switch [2]” bill set the wrong precedent for new federal powers. Cyber security is a serious issue [3] and needs to be addressed as part of national security, but the broad language of the bill and lack of details is disconcerting. I hope we don’t forget the lessons of Neda and Iran and relinquish our rights, freedoms and protection solely to a centralized govt power.