America tries to silence political bloggers
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A new senate bill in bill in the US will force any political blogger to register and report quarterly toCongress in a similar fashion to Street Lobbyists. Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate would amend existing lobbying reporting law by creating the most expansive intrusion on First Amendment rights ever. This is definitely a first, all critics of the US government will have to register and go before Congress to explain themselves.
They are sneaking this law in under the guise of any blogger who makes money from politics needs to register. Their interpretation in this case is that bloggers who have a readership of over 500 are making money from it. This isn’t always the case of course, and blogs, considering their readership are usualy quite web savvy, do not benefit much from advertising.
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