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December 13, 2013 01:03 am GMT
Google put its significant digital soapbox behind an official White House petition on privacy, reaching the difficult 100,000 signature threshold today. Google, along with a host of civil liberty groups, hopes it will pressure the administration into back legislation to require a warrant for email spying (“ECPA reform“). Given the White House’s history addressing tech-related issues on its petition platform, there’s a decent chance it could actually influence law. Or, as the White House often does, completely ignore the request. Here’s how both scenarios could shake out. Oh, You Got Me Signatures. ThatWas…So, Um…Nice It’s helpful to think of WeThePeople, the official White House Petition platform, as an extension of the press corps. With enough signatures (currently 100K), the unwashed masses get to ask officials a question in public. Just like a question from the press, it can be completely dodged, but, on occasion, could lead to meaningful reform. So, for instance, when a bazillion netizens successfully gathered enough petitions for their time-honored goal of legalizing pot, the administration pretty much parroted Obama’s response to the same question: “Thanks young people for electing me, but no, I’m not legalizing pot.” Or, more officially, they cut and pasted Obama’s answer from a Barbara Walters interview. In fact, in the beginning, administrators dodged petition requests so often, it eventually had to respond to this gemwith the following:”Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening.” The White House often treats its signature process like an ugly Christmas sweater — a completely uninvited gift that is reluctantly acknowledged and then promptly buried in a back closet somewhere. The Petition Process Has Given Geeks Great Power WeThePeople is a deliciously subversive tool in one regard: it gives the administration cover when it actually wants to change a law. For instance, it’s unlikely that a high-profile, politics-obsessed White House press corps reporter would use his opportunity to ask President Obama about a ban on unlocking cellphones. Turns out, however, the issue is super popular among America’s geeks, both inside and outside the White House. So, when a successful WeThePeople petition on the topic came across the administration’s desk, it declared, for the first time, its support for changing a regulation to allow consumers to take their cellphones across different wireless carriers. Thanks to the petition, the Federal Communications Commission will likely legalize cellphone unlocking today. The
Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/O8viasQNxXQ/
Google-Backed Email Privacy Petition Gets 100K Signatures, But Will It Work?
Google put its significant digital soapbox behind an official White House petition on privacy, reaching the difficult 100,000 signature threshold today. Google, along with a host of civil liberty groups, hopes it will pressure the administration into back legislation to require a warrant for email spying (“ECPA reform“). Given the White House’s history addressing tech-related issues on its petition platform, there’s a decent chance it could actually influence law. Or, as the White House often does, completely ignore the request. Here’s how both scenarios could shake out. Oh, You Got Me Signatures. ThatWas…So, Um…Nice It’s helpful to think of WeThePeople, the official White House Petition platform, as an extension of the press corps. With enough signatures (currently 100K), the unwashed masses get to ask officials a question in public. Just like a question from the press, it can be completely dodged, but, on occasion, could lead to meaningful reform. So, for instance, when a bazillion netizens successfully gathered enough petitions for their time-honored goal of legalizing pot, the administration pretty much parroted Obama’s response to the same question: “Thanks young people for electing me, but no, I’m not legalizing pot.” Or, more officially, they cut and pasted Obama’s answer from a Barbara Walters interview. In fact, in the beginning, administrators dodged petition requests so often, it eventually had to respond to this gemwith the following:”Actually take these petitions seriously instead of just using them as an excuse to pretend you are listening.” The White House often treats its signature process like an ugly Christmas sweater — a completely uninvited gift that is reluctantly acknowledged and then promptly buried in a back closet somewhere. The Petition Process Has Given Geeks Great Power WeThePeople is a deliciously subversive tool in one regard: it gives the administration cover when it actually wants to change a law. For instance, it’s unlikely that a high-profile, politics-obsessed White House press corps reporter would use his opportunity to ask President Obama about a ban on unlocking cellphones. Turns out, however, the issue is super popular among America’s geeks, both inside and outside the White House. So, when a successful WeThePeople petition on the topic came across the administration’s desk, it declared, for the first time, its support for changing a regulation to allow consumers to take their cellphones across different wireless carriers. Thanks to the petition, the Federal Communications Commission will likely legalize cellphone unlocking today. TheOriginal Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/O8viasQNxXQ/
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