Global Web Censorship: Obama Sidesteps Senate Again

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Jan 26, 2012 3 Comments ›› Staff Writer

When we reported previously on SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), and the dangers of allowing the government the ability to shut down websites without due process of law, we didn’t realize that it was already too late. As it turns out, Obama has already signed a global agreement that will allow foreign countries – including China – to censor the Internet in the U.S. without due process. The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was signed by Obama on October 1, 2011. Dozens of European nations have now signed the “agreement” as well. The EU nations claim that ACTA is a binding treaty; there’s just one problem now. Obama has violated the Constitution once again.

Under Constitutional law, treaties have to be ratified by the United States Senate. The Founding Fathers didn’t want to give the Executive branch the ability to enter into agreements with foreign nations unilaterally. Such an action could potentially be damaging to the individual states, so the Senate has to ratify these agreements. Under Obama’s ideology, states shouldn’t exist anyway, so it’s no surprise that he holds this particular LAW in contempt.

So what did he do? He’s telling Congress that the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is an “executive agreement” and not a treaty. We’re not sure what an executive agreement is, but perhaps Obama means that it’s similar to an executive order, or more accurately, “by order of the king.”

For all intents and purposes, ACTA is far worse than the SOPA and PIPA proposals that U.S. lawmakers have shelved for now. There is still a danger that the House and Senate will pick up these laws at a later date, but for now our lawmakers have backed down after the vast majority of people expressed their distaste for these web censorship bills. ACTA, however, makes these bills look silly and childish by comparison.

The U.S. censorship bills would allow the government to shut down websites without due process of law. The Obama administration has already been asking YouTube to erase videos that are critical of the government, so let’s not pretend that the administration is doing this to protect intellectual property.

ACTA would give foreign treaty members the same ability, but against U.S. websites. Imagine that you run an online business, and you sell electronic devices. These devices are manufactured in China. One day, your Internet Service Provider receives a notice from the Chinese government. A Chinese company claims that an image that you use on your website to help sell one of these gadgets is a copyrighted image, and therefore you’ve committed copyright infringement. Your ISP is required by law under this treaty to take your website down.

It gets worse. Under the language in ACTA, a foreign company can require U.S. authorities to seize and destroy merchandise that is suspected of being counterfeited. Did you catch that? Without a court order, and without due process of law, a foreign company can claim that it SUSPECTS that a company is selling counterfeited goods. And this treaty which Obama calls an “executive agreement” would allow the Justice Department to seize your merchandise and destroy it. Business owners would not be given a chance to defend themselves in court or to prove that their merchandise is in fact authentic. The potential for abuse is staggering.

Mass protests are under way in Europe against ACTA. A group of hackers took down the Federal Trade Commission website in the U.S. in protest as well. Obama signed this treaty without even mentioning it to the American people. Then he had the audacity to claim that it wasn’t a treaty. Don’t be surprised if some of your favorite websites begin vanishing one day soon.