CT Attorney General and Senate Candidate Richard Blumenthal (D) wants to limit free speech online

[Renew Deal]

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There's also no question that going after Craigslist in an election year is cheap political theater. It's a heckuvalot easier to write a strongly worded letter (followed by a press release) to grab headlines for being tough on prostitution without having to getting your hands dirty by, say, actually being tough on prostitution.

Craigslist appears to be protected by the safe harbor provisions of the Communications Decency Act, which keeps websites free from legal liability for the material other people post there. Yet state AGs like Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal are calling for Congress to rewrite the CDA to their liking. Per The Hartford Courant:

Blumenthal criticized , saying it "dates from the earliest days of the Internet," and is now "completely outdated."

"I believe that the very broad immunity claimed by craigslist and other websites should be substantially reduced," Blumenthal said in an interview. "Congress should certainly modify or clarify the standard to cut back on the immunity that they claim is virtually absolute."

Blumenthal said websites such as craigslist should have the same legal status as newspapers that abet criminal activity — not blanket protection.

Imagine an Internet where every site was liable for every comment left by some halfwit. Imagine the damage you could do to a site you didn't care for just by sprinkling a few scurrilous comments or what could happen to political sites like Daily Kos or RedState, where that kind of commenting is standard fare. Most sites these days have their hands full just trying to fight comment spam, let alone trying to police content that might "abet criminal activity." If the safe harbor provisions of the CDA came down, they'd likely take vast numbers of websites with them.

If the states really were listening to "the voices of the victims, women and children" and wanted to crack down on prostitution, they could simply order the cops to contact a few advertisers on Craigslist and arrest them for soliciting. Once word got out the police were cracking down on Craigslist ads, those ads would dry up. The hookers would move on to another venue.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/craigslist-state-attorneys-censor-744

[T Wolf]

1. What is it with Connecticut and so-called Democrats? Or is simply ahead of the curve in

terms of the party moving so far right that it bears no similarity to the party I grew up in?