The federal law that is commonly used to prosecute leakers marks its 100th birthday on June 15,2017.
Signed into law on June 15, 1917, the Espionage Act 18 U.S.C. § 792 et seq., was Congress’s response to a fear that public criticism of U.S. participation in World War I would impede the conscript of soldiers to support the war effort and concerns about U.S. citizens undermining the war effort by spying for foreign governments. Although some parts of the law were repealed, many remain in effect 100 years later.
One hundred years ago, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act into law, and since then it has been used to criminalize the disclosure of national defense and classified information.
Dissent-Stifling Roots
At the turn of the 20th century, anti-immigrant, xenophobic sentimentsdominated national rhetoric and was consequently reflected in the legislation crafted. On September 25, 1919, the 28th President of the United States Woodrow Wilson gave his final address in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo, CO and in his speech, he spoke of American immigrants with hyphenated nationalities: “Any man who carries a hyphen around with him carries a dagger that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready.” Wilson specifically targeted Irish-Americans and German-Americans, whom he perceived to be disloyal immigrants and potential spies. In fact, many state governments banned the teaching of German in schools, since it was “a language that disseminates the ideas of autocracy, brutality, and hatred.” The nativism movement continued to grow from the “Know-Nothing” party to the Palmer raids as concerns about espionage and disloyalty swirled.
Pornhub is about to show the world the real impact of net neutrality by hitting internet users where it hurts: their porn consumption habit. The company joins Amazon, Reddit, Mozilla and others in the ‘Battle for the Net’ protest set to take place on July 12. While Pornhub remains non-commital on what exactly it’ll do during the protest, CEO Corey Price told Motherboard it could implement a loading icon that shows the slowdown users would face if broadband companies implemented internet fast lanes. Price said: No one in the porn industry ever yells ‘slower, slower, slower. We’re much more accustomed to ‘faster,
I was wrong about Ethereum because it’s such a good store of value… no wait, let me try again. I was wrong about Ethereum because it’s such a decentra… nope. I was wrong about Ethereum because everyone is using it as a supercomputer… No. I do admit I didn’t see this Ethereum bubble coming, but then again I wrongly assumed that no startup would need or even dare to ask $50 million in funding and I also wrongly assumed that people would use common sense and that leading developers would speak out against this sort of practice. Quite the opposite…
Discover more from Erkan's Field Diary
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.