On October 26, 2001, then President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act., acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. It is time for its renewal to be reconsidered. Since it was rushed to passage after 9/11, many who voted for it because of their confidence in Bush. Since then many have questioned whether it should have been passed, how it seems to skirt the Constitution, and whether the passage consideration would be destructive to our democracy.
One areas of consideration is the intrusiveness of our government in the area of Free Speech, not only of Americans but of citizens of foreign countries as well. Our government has requested Internet information on foreign nationals, whose governments resent the intrusion and are unwilling to violate the privacy of their citizens.
Twitter was willing to challenge a grand jury subpoena, but it is unlikely the Google and Facebook would have given or did give similar response. To read how Twitter views the issue, click here.
Please make sure your legislators are familiar with the Patriot Act before anyone votes to renew it. There are some very important aspects that may have been acceptable to some while everyone was mislead to think we were in real danger from weapons of mass destruction. Since much of what brought us to that point is no longer relevant in the same way, we should carefully consider the damage renewing it, as is, can do.
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