Opposition to CISPA has exploded over the past 36 hours. While some privacy groups and concerned citizens had been trying to sound the alarms for weeks and months, it took passage in the House to really set the spark of protest. Petitions are popping up online, Reddit is taking notice, the White House issued a veto threat and companies such as Microsoft are withdrawing their support.
For the anti-CISPA folks, the timing is almost perfect. The bill was always destined to pass the House: it had more than 100 co-sponsors before most of the bill’s current naysayers started taking notice. However, the Senate’s much less friendly to CISPA. Privacy groups are, rightfully so, betting they can amend the bill to be less onerous in the upper chamber of Congress.
The Senate’s not likely to agree to a cybersecurity bill that:
- Sacrifices privacy for security
- Doesn’t include government-set standards for vital infrastructure
- Would likely be vetoed by the president
As it stands, CISPA would hit all of those.
