This isn’t about child porn… This is about shutting down the Blogosphere. That’s it in a right-wingnut-shell. That is all there is to say. McCain has completely and totaly lost his effin’ mind.

“Because “social-networking site” isn’t defined, it could encompass far more than just MySpace.com, Friendster and similar sites. The list could include: Slashdot, which permits public profiles; Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists; and blogs like RedState that show public profiles. In addition, media companies like News.com publisher CNET Networks permit users to create profiles of favorite games, gadgets and music. 

“This constitutionally dubious proposal is being made apparently mostly based on fear or political considerations rather than on the facts,” said EFF’s Bankston. Studies by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show the online sexual solicitation of minors has dropped in the past five years, despite the growth of social-networking services, he said.”

Not only will the left blogosphere start pounding McCain on this BUT the right-wingnuts will spazz out on this in their typical fanatical fashion. CT Bob has already found some signs of the twitching in right-wingnutosphere.

More Below
Think Progress has more on this:

  – Commercial websites and personal blogs “would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000.”

  – Internet service providers (ISPs) are already required to issue such reports, but under McCain’s legislation, bloggers with comment sections may face “even stiffer penalties” than ISPs.

  – Social networking sites will be forced to take “effective measures” – such as deleting user profiles – to remove any website that is “associated” with a sex offender. Sites may include not only Facebook and MySpace, but also Amazon.com, which permits author profiles and personal lists, and blogs like DailyKos, which allows users to sign up for personal diaries.

This could wreak havoc on sites like Booman Tribune, dKOs and other big communities. Nevermind the fact that little Blogs like your Blogspot could end up shutting down completely. How many of us can afford a $300,000 dollar fine?

Imagine MLN or dKos if they had to turn off the comments features for fear of one person adding a link to the wrong address? The entire freeflow of thought that has built the left’s internet think tank would effectively be muzzled. And how the hell do they stop this in other countries? They can’t enforce this here unless they cut the American internet off from the rest of the world.

The moronic McCain has just surpassed Kerry by a longshot as the biggest joke in the Blogosphere. Unlike Kerry’s botched joke, McCain has willfully chosen to commit political suicide. I guess that will makes him the punchline too!

And if that isn’t enough they are also attacking us from everywhere on other Blogging issues! Kidspeak has an excellent piece on how the politicians (on both sides) will be taking the failed federal attempts at muzzling us down to a state level in “Net Neutrality: Strangling netroots state by state.” Figure the odds that “we see the political power of the netroots begin to be strangled, with the fine help of a DLC-approved Democratic governor.“

We have to pay close attention to these issues. We will only get one shot at stopping all of this madness and after that the Blogosphere as we know may cease to exist.