In the wake of Oklahoma City, anti-/violence/pornography/bomb downloading rhetoric is becoming the stock-in-trade of pandering politicians who wouldn’t know a modem if it hit them in the head … The ignorant posturings of these and other politicians and Congresscritters would be ludicrous if they weren’t so dangerous. Waiting in the wings, ready to eviscerate civil rights in cyberspace, are the FBI and NSA, with their agenda to tap every phone in America and make effective cryptography illegal.
Predictor: Rizetnikof, Levi
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 column for Wired magazine, Levi Rizetnikof writes (he says, with a tip of the hat to Brock N. Meeks and Jon Katz): ”In the wake of Oklahoma City, anti-/violence/pornography/bomb downloading rhetoric is becoming the stock-in-trade of pandering politicians who wouldn’t know a modem if it hit them in the head. Evidence: on the right, we have self-proclaimed ‘moderate’ Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) calling a hearing of which the subtext was how the Internet, somehow, represents a clear and present danger to the American way of life, threatening innocent citizens and children. On the left, we have supposedly liberal Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) rebuking a panel of experts who pointed out that the First Amendment was designed to protect uncomfortable speech, even ‘bomb-making information’ located online. (She failed to mention that this same information is available in most libraries or that it is actually being published by the USDA Forest Service in a guide.) The ignorant posturings of these and other politicians and Congresscritters would be ludicrous if they weren’t so dangerous. Waiting in the wings, ready to eviscerate civil rights in cyberspace, are the FBI and NSA, with their agenda to tap every phone in America and make effective cryptography illegal.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Privacy/Surveillance
Name of publication: Wired
Title, headline, chapter name: New Scapegoat: The Internet
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.07/eword.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney