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Congress Dems to censor Congress' use of Social Web??


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DISCLAIMER: This is pure heresay coming from Congressman John Culberson's twitter stream. http://twitter.com/johnculberson

UPDATE: Link in the comments to the actual PDF of the House Memo

If you aren't familiar, here's the backstory: A Republican Congressman from Texas is making brilliant use of the most modern of social web tools -- Twitter, Qik, Utterz -- to make transparent what he does throughout the day and what is going on in Washington.

He twittered this morning:

* "I just learned the Dems are trying to censor Congressmen's ability to use Twitter Qik YouTube Utterz etc - outrageous and I will fight them"

* "Dem "Supreme Soviet" leadership of House would have to approve every Twitter before I could post it!!!"

* "They want to require prior approval of all posts to any public social media/internet/www site by any member of Congress!!!"

* "Before I could post a Tweet I would have to get approval of the twits that run the House!"

Of course, 2 minutes after I got his last Tweet I got a Tweet from Barack Obama, what's the deal? Updates here as they come out...
danlevine

29 responses // Congress Dems to censor Congress' use of Social Web??

  • watch this comment being used here, here and here
    OMG I thought twitter was only for use by democrats!
    benvenuto
  • http://digg.com/politics/Cogress_Dems_to_Censor_Congres...
    DIGG THIS :-)
    danlevine
  • That is some branding Genius to get a Republican from Texas to use the word Tweet!! But back to the issue at hand, if he's not sharing info on Area 51why the hell can't he tweet away?
    Pelfving
  • Maybe it's meant to keep them from courting underage interns over the internet? Remember they seem to be having problems with that lately.
    aschneider
  • http://www.reddit.com/info/6qudg
    Reddit link...
    danlevine
  • Update from JC at 2:25pm PST:

    "Stand by for full details - I am in a meeting - about to wrap up"
    danlevine
  • http://summize.com/search?q=%40johnculberson
    Watch the twitter conversation in near realtime through summize...
    danlevine
  • http://gopleader.gov/UploadedFiles/Capuano_letter.PDF
    Here's a link to the PDF, from John Culberson's tweet: http://twitter.com/johnculberson/statuses/853181860
    danlevine
  • The PDF seems to focus on video, and doesn't specifically seem to disallow live streaming, twittering, etc. -- it just doesn't specifically allow it (and also carries a pretty depressing tone of conservatism and closed-ness).

    What I want to know: Is @johnculberson getting resistance from House Dems on Twitter/Qik specifically?
    sloan
  • send him a twitter and ask him to post a webcam comment here.
    aschneider
  • http://twitter.com/johnculberson/statuses/853207951
    Lots of people asking how that doc specifically refers to Twitter etc. His reply:

    "Look at page two - note each Twitter etc must meet 'existing content rules and regulations' that means prior approval/rewrite"
    danlevine
  • http://www.culberson.house.gov/news.aspx?A=441
    Check out the update on his site. Here's a snippet:

    Breaking News: Free Speech Under Attack

    "Today House Republican Leader John Boehner issued a statement indicating that Democrats are seeking to quash the right of Members of Congress to have free speech. According to the statement, the Democrats are looking at restricting Member content on websites outside the house.gov domain. Congressman Culberson is quickly becoming a "real time representative" by posting on Twitter.com, where he sends regular updates from the House floor and the halls of Congress, and on Qik.com, where he films and posts video updates on the Internet. This new technology allows him to bypass the mainstream media and shine sunlight into the darkest corners of Congress. If the Democrats strong-arm this rule, he would no longer be able to use these websites and our fundamental right to free speech will be taken away.

    The following is Mr. Boehner's statement:

    I’m writing to alert you to an attack on free speech that is making its way through Congress. This attack, which should concern activists of all political affiliations across the ideological spectrum, comes in the form of a new congressional rule that would prohibit Americans from viewing content published by Members of Congress on websites that are not “approved” by the Committee on House Administration, the panel that creates rules governing the internal operations of the U.S. House."
    dcuisinot
  • http://tinyurl.com/5gnczo
    The other side of the coin, summarized Tim O'Reilly:

    "My sources say @johnculbertson is wrong. twitter is furthest from franking commission's mind. This is all about youtube. http://tinyurl.com/6y4ypt"

    Although I'm not sure how/why youtube should be any different?
    danlevine
    1 response to this
  • watch this comment being used here, here, here and here
    To me, this is an interesting example of how services like Twitter can be used to create hysteria over nothing. No one is a bigger free speech hawk than I am, but I don't see how there is any substance to this story at all.

    I mean, a few disgruntled minority-party congressmen waving a comically impenetrable memo does not a scandal make just because they're getting their panties in a wad about it.
    Blazesboy
    1 response to this
  • More proof that those in power prefer the public know as little as possible.
    Hellssatans
  • http://techdirt.com/articles/20080708/1602521624.shtml
    @blazesboy this could just be a publicity stunt by JC. Here's a good Techdirt post that takes that point of view.

    "today [John Culberson's] been using Twitter to ignite a totally misguided partisan war, pretending (falsely) that Democrats are trying to prevent him from using Twitter."
    danlevine
  • Seriously, this is a Ripusoffican making a disparaging claim against Democrats? Why? Because he expects to be EJECTED from his place at the public trough - the pig he is.

    Read what the post says:

    DISCLAIMER: This is pure heresay coming from Congressman John Culberson's twitter stream. http://twitter.com/johnculberson
    VoyagerFilms
  • This whole thing is kind of confusing.But apparently it is just a new twist to the same o same o in dirty political tricks.
    pissedoffinarkansas
  • watch this comment being used here and here
    If the Ds rule change were in effect today, before I could post this, YOUR website/blog would have to be preapproved as complying with House rules, my post would require a disclaimer that it was "produced by a House office for official purposes," and the CONTENT of my post would have to preapproved by the House Franking Committee as complying with "existing content rules and regulations."

    This is a violation of YOUR First Amendment rights and mine, and is an outrageous attempt by House leadership to stifle and control you and me. If Rs were in charge I would be just as outraged - forget the party label - I do not want the federal gov't/House of Representatives certifying your website or the content of my posts. I am writing this post personally, in my official capacity, so it would fall precisely under their new rule and you and I would both be in violation unless we subjected ourselves and our words to their prior approval/editing.

    I am always the first to admit I am wrong when I can be shown I am in error. I am an attorney and I know what the letter says and what they mean with it. The people implementing this new rule may be benevolent and have noble purposes, but that is irrelevant. This violates the First Amendment.
    JohnCulberson
    2 responses to this
  • SMELLS ALOT LIKE REPUBLICANS TO ME.
    squilla1123
  • http://qik.com/video/125375
    Here's a great informative interview with John Culberson by Andrew Feinberg via Qik.
    danlevine
  • http://qik.com/video/125456
    Here's a link to a Qik interview John did while he was being interviewed by Fox news. He is Twittering why getting Qik'd while being interviewed by Fox. Pretty hot stuff.
    danlevine
    1 response to this
  • http://letourcongresstweet.org/
    Hi,

    I work with Sunlight Foundation, an organization that works for more digital transparency in goverment.

    We just launched a new campaign, Let Our Congress Tweet, to urge Congress to make clear guidelines that do not inhibit lawmakers from freely interacting with constituents where they already go online to share ideas-through Web services like YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

    Join our petition right now and make your voice count.

    http://letourcongresstweet.org/

    For more back story on this experiment check out our blog post :

    < http://blog.sunlightfoundation.com/2008/07/10/let-our-c...

    Sweet. Current kids do the greatest of stuff


    Lizzie
    Lizzie Nolan
    Communications Assistant
    The Sunlight Foundation
    www.sunlightfoundation.com
    DizzyMsLizzy
  • WHAT ARE THEY HIDING???? That's so messed up. Free speech for everyone and the right to be informed!!!!
    elisealcyone

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