{"id":285885,"date":"2024-04-18T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285885"},"modified":"2024-04-19T06:51:58","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T06:51:58","slug":"nsa-just-days-from-taking-over-the-internet-warns-edward-snowden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=285885","title":{"rendered":"NSA \u2019just days from taking over the internet\u2019 warns Edward Snowden"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Tom Mitchelhill \u2013 Cointelegraph Apr 16, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>The United States National Security Agency (NSA) is only days away from \u201ctaking over the internet\u201d with a massive expansion of its surveillance powers, according to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.<\/p>\n<p>In an April 16 post to X, Snowden drew attention to a thread originally posted by Elizabeth Goitein \u2014 the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice \u2014 that warned of a new bill that could see the U.S. government surveillance powers amplified to new levels.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The NSA is just \ud835\uddd7\ud835\uddd4\ud835\uddec\ud835\udde6 from taking over the internet, and it&#39;s not on the front page of any newspaper&#8211;because no one has noticed. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qp5BimwOjI\">https:\/\/t.co\/qp5BimwOjI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Edward Snowden (@Snowden) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Snowden\/status\/1779920066840055847?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Snowden\/status\/1779920066840055847\">Edward Snowden<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The bill in question reforms and extends a part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) known as Section 702.<\/p>\n<p>Currently, the NSA can force internet service providers such as Google and Verizon to hand over sensitive data concerning NSA targets.<\/p>\n<p>However, Goitein claims that through an \u201cinnocuous change\u201d to the definition of \u201celectronic communications surveillance provider\u201d in the FISA 702 bill, the U.S. government could go far beyond its current scope and force nearly every company and individual that provides any internet-related service to assist with NSA surveillance.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThat sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist\u2019s offices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the people forced to hand over data would be unable to discuss the information provided due to hefty gag order penalties and conditions outlined in the bill, added Goitein.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">If the bill becomes law, any company or individual that provides ANY service whatsoever may be forced to assist in NSA surveillance, as long as they have access to equipment on which communications are transmitted or stored\u2014such as routers, servers, cell towers, etc. 6\/25<\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Elizabeth Goitein (@LizaGoitein) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LizaGoitein\/status\/1779885131873800582?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 15, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em>Source: <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LizaGoitein\/status\/1779885131873800582\"><em>Elizabeth Goitein<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The bill initially received heavy pushback from privacy-conscious Republicans but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/house-votes-renew-fisa-spying-tool-earlier-republican-revolt-rcna147557\">passed<\/a> through the U.S. House of Representatives on April 13.<\/p>\n<p>Part of the pushback saw the bills\u2019 proposed spying powers time-frame cut from five years to two years, as well as some minor amendments to the service providers included under the surveillance measures.<\/p>\n<p>However, according to Goitein, the amendment did very little to reduce the scope of surveillance granted to the NSA.<\/p>\n<p>In her view, the amendment could even see service providers such as cleaners, plumbers and IT service providers that have access to laptops and routers inside people\u2019s homes be forced to provide information and serve as \u201csurrogate spies,\u201d claimed Goitein.<\/p>\n<p>The bill has seen strong pushback from both sides of the political aisle, with several government representatives claiming the bill violates citizen\u2019s constitutional rights.<\/p>\n<p>Democratic Senator Ron Wyden <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RonWyden\/status\/1778864936573100445\">described<\/a> the bill as \u201cterrifying\u201d and said he would do everything in his power to prevent it from being passed through the Senate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">\u201cThis bill represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republican Congressperson Anna Paulina Luna, who voted against the bill in the House of Representatives, said Section 702 was an \u201cirresponsible extension\u201d of the NSA\u2019s powers. Luna added that if government agencies wanted access to data, they must be forced to apply for a warrant.<\/p>\n<p>The bill is slated for a vote on April 19 in the U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/nsa-days-from-taking-over-internet-whistleblower-edward-snowden\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the words of Senator Ron Wyden, a new bill slated for a vote on April 19, \u201crepresents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":91641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-controlling-the-news-andor-the-free-exchange-of-ideas-and-information"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=285885"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285885\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":285886,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285885\/revisions\/285886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=285885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=285885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=285885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}