Issue Position: Internet Freedom

Issue Position

It is no coincidence that the unprecedented innovation and entrepreneurship the Internet has allowed and the resulting improvements to our daily lives have happened largely without interference from the government.

Gary Johnson has often said, "There is nothing wrong with the Internet that I want the government to fix." Nothing in history has allowed for more innovation than the Internet. It has literally changed our world.

This is because the Internet gives everyday people the tools of progress by putting information, technology, and communities at our fingertips. Nothing could compromise progress more than giving the politicians in Washington, D.C. the ability to cut off information, question new technology, and intrude on our communities.

Yet, there are increasing calls for government regulation and intrusion into the Internet. Just recently, Congress passed so-called Cyber Security legislation, which, like the Patriot Act, gives bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. the power to monitor and collect information about our private lives. Some politicians have gone so far as to suggest the government should have a "kill switch" for the entire Internet!

Other politicians are even demanding that unelected agents of the government be granted special "backdoors" into encrypted and private data so they can gather confidential information without anyone knowing about it. Security, they argue, depends on the mass collection of personal and private data.

We disagree.

Security is important, for sure. But throwing away our right to privacy has the opposite effect of protecting our freedom. That's why the Fourth Amendment says that the government can't snoop into our private lives unless they have a good reason to do so. Besides, is the government more likely to secure our freedom by collecting trillions of bits of unmanageable data, or by identifying real threats and focusing their efforts on properly warranted searches?

Gary Johnson and Bill Weld have consistently supported Internet freedom because the progress of our society and the privacy of our personal lives depend on it.

Keep the Internet Free. Protect Privacy. Get a Warrant.

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