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Just the Fax: Internet Activists go Analog to Fight Congress on Cybersecurity Bill

posted by martyb on Thursday July 30 2015, @03:45AM   Printer-friendly
from the dragnet dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Washington cybersecurity bill [protesters] are hitting Congress where it hurts: right in the fax machine.

Protesters have programmed eight separate phone lines to convert emails sent from a handy box at FaxBigBrother.com (as well as tweets with the hashtag #faxbigbrother) to individual faxes and send them to all 100 members of the US Senate.

The rationale, said Evan Greer of activist group Fight for the Future, is that Congress doesn’t appear to understand technology invented in the current century.

“Groups like Fight for the Future have sent millions of emails, and they still don’t seem to get it,” said Greer. “Maybe they don’t get it because they’re stuck in 1984, and we figured we’d use some 80s technology to try to get our point across.” All 100 members of Congress will receive each of the faxes.
...
Do US senators really use their fax machines that often, though? “Yes, sadly,” one former Senate staffer told the Guardian. They love their pagers as well. Faxes “all get digitized by the time they get to the office, though”, which bodes ill for senatorial email inboxes.

And why is 1979’s hottest tech trend still so popular on Capitol Hill? “One thing that makes faxes – and pagers, for that matter – still good tech is that they are analog and difficult to search. Members love them, especially to transmit data for things like campaign financing records.”

… so, if you're looking for an explanation for why government does things the way it does, the explanation that assumes maximum weasel … factor is nearly always correct?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:10AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:10AM (#215745)

    No, you're missing the point. The Internet and the Fax are contemporary technologies. Senators know the Internet is not new. This "protest" is completely stupid and a waste of time for all involved because it will rightfully be ignored as a bunch of stupid ignorant teens being ignorant.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:30AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:30AM (#215751)
    The Internet was the province of universities and computer specialists for much of the twentieth century, it was only in the last years of the twentieth century that it started becoming mainstream. It will be ignored because that is what congress does. They never care unless they think it will cost them votes or if there's money involved.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:46AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:46AM (#215756)

      The 21st century mainstream Internet is the realm of drunks who post photos of their twats. I wonder why anyone would ever choose to ignore messages from a cesspool of drunken scum?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:50AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @07:50AM (#215790)

        Self-criticism seems to be your forte. Good thing, really.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:06AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 30 2015, @08:06AM (#215794)

        I wonder why anyone would ever choose to ignore messages from a cesspool of drunken scum?

        You do know that you took the time to write that message out, hit a preview button, then a submit button on the internet? To the point: you are doing what you are criticizing others of doing by doing it and have some expectation of not being ignored despite being part of your titled "drunken scum".

          Congrats, revel in the cesspool. I hear there are free drinks and twat pictures somewhere around here.

  • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:42AM

    by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday July 30 2015, @05:42AM (#215754) Journal

    I just love it when Hairyfeet posts as AC. You can just feel the spittle!