Obama’s ‘New’ Cybersecurity Bill: CISPA With a New Name

Bill Rehashes Effort to Give Companies Immunity From Privacy Lawsuits

President Obama was sharply critical of the CISPA bill in the past, warning the bill didn’t protect Americans’ privacy. Now, he is proposing a “new” cybersecurity bill that is an almost word-for-word copy of that bill.

The CISPA bill aimed to give companies blanket immunity from civil lawsuits for violating privacy agreements in sharing data with the government on the grounds of “cybersecurity,” and the new bill also centers on that.

The White House insists this version is different in that it does “address privacy,” but it’s not clear how from the wording how it is any different in that regard from the previous proposal.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R – TX), a backer of CISPA, is now welcoming the new proposal, citing the Sony Pictures hack and claiming that is what brought the administration around to his way of thinking. Nothing in the bill would’ve changed the Sony Pictures hack in any way.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.