DOJ proposals
A recent DOJ legislative proposal claims to be about child pornography — but it's really not. Instead, it's designed to force online providers of speech that is legal for adults in the US (sexually explicit, non-obscene material) to label their materials. With government-provided labels.
DOJ is also planning to ask that ISPs be required to retain data. This isn't (really) about child pornography either. This is about having ISPs incur enormous costs to store massive amounts of data on the off chance that law enforcement may need it. Existing law already requires that ISPs preserve data when the government asks them to.
The former suggestion is part of an old, long battle about making it more difficult for adults to access (legal) pornography. The latter suggestion is part of the CALEA pattern: trying to have systems and applications designed so that they can be easily accessible by law enforcement.
In the first fight, the goal is to block access to particular online speech by the rest of us. In the second fight, the goal is to enable perfect (and perfectly easy) access by law enforcement to everything we do online.
The costs to legal speech and lawful ISP operations surely outweigh the possible benefits of such moves. We really need some economic analysis here. What are we willing to do, what burdens are we willing to undertake, to make life as “safe” as possible? Is there no limit?