POLITICO
Tony Romm | May 16, 2012

FBI Director Robert Mueller suggested to lawmakers Wednesday that the agency is weighing “some form of legislation” that could require Internet service providers and other companies to ensure their systems are compatible with federal wiretap orders.

Mueller made his remarks in response to a question by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) at an agency oversight hearing. Leahy cited recent reports suggesting the FBI desires a way to “require Internet service providers and other online services to make their [services] amenable to government surveillance,” but told Mueller that “the administration has not sent any up here.”

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THE HILL
Andrew Feinberg | May 17, 2012

Law enforcement and civil libertarians clashed Thursday over a GOP-backed bill to limit how law enforcement can track individuals using their mobile phones.

The Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance Act, sponsored by Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), would require law enforcement officials to obtain a warrant based on probable cause before tracking individuals using geolocation data from their mobile phones.

But at a Thursday hearing of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association President John Ramsey complained that the bill was “overly broad” and would hinder law enforcement.

Ramsey said requiring warrants for tracking could be the start of a slippery slope.

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FOREIGN POLICY
Rebecca MacKinnon | May 16, 2012

In 2005, Peter Mahnke, a resident of the English town of St. Margaret’s, Middlesex, set up a community website. For the past seven years, he and a handful of local volunteers have been publishing regular updates about local events, parks, new businesses, weather, and train schedules. All G-rated and uncontroversial.

Yet in early March, for reasons that remain unclear, the St. Margaret’s website was blocked throughout Britain on mobile Internet services offered by Orange (a subsidiary of France Telecom) and T-mobile (owned by Deutsche Telecom). The site had fallen victim to a nationwide child-protection system run by the mobile companies themselves. Somehow the system, which activists say is rife with errors, had classified the site as “adult” content, causing it to be blocked on all phones by default.

The accidental censorship of the St. Margaret’s community website highlights a larger reality of the Internet age: The digital networks and platforms we depend upon for all aspects of our lives — including the civic and political — are for the most part designed, owned, operated, and governed by the private sector. Internet and mobile services empower us to organize and communicate in exciting new ways, and indeed have been politically transformative in democracies and dictatorships alike. But the connectivity they provide has also created tough new problems for parents, law enforcement, and anybody wanting to protect their intellectual property.

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THE TRIBUNE
Rick Janacek | May 14, 2012

Fireworks erupted at the latest Humble ISD School Board meeting regarding the selection of books in Humble schools.

The controversy began last month when Ron Abbott, the parent of a seventh-grade student at Creekwood Middle School, addressed the board regarding the book “Stuck in Neutral” by Terry Trueman. The fictional book is told in the first person by a teen with cerebral palsy. The book deals with such subjects as disabilities, quality of life and euthanasia. Abbott believed the book was an inappropriate reading assignment for a child his son’s age. Abbott also raised concerns regarding a speaking appearance by Trueman at Creekwood Middle School (CMS).

Abbott once again addressed the board at this month’s meeting, along with several other parents upset with the selection process.

“The question boils down to age appropriateness,” said Abbott. “Is a seventh-grader capable of reading a book like this and not being disturbed? Furthermore, if you assign a book like this, the next question is that should there be a classroom discussion? And what concerned me the most is that the book was given to the students; the students read the book; upon finishing the book there was a content test and that was it. No discussion, no debate over euthanasia.”

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