When people say the Internet is a threatening place, they usually mean for children, whom it can expose to all manner of inappropriate things. They aren’t usually talking about adults and political materials they may come across online.


But some in Washington’s bureaucratic class seem to think the Internet is too dangerous and full of foreign influences for adults to judge for themselves. And that attitude is a greater threat than the Internet itself.


At a forum in New York City last week, Democratic FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel raised the specter of foreign influences entering American politics via the Internet. “I’m not trying to regulate the Internet,” she opened. She went on: “I have said we need to talk to people, to technologists, to people who are thinking about this subject, and who understand that issues of voting and issues of campaign finance are going to the Internet.”


Ravel was echoing the concerns of her colleague, Democratic FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, who warned last week that the Islamic State could set up a political action committee unless something is done. And of course, all protestations aside, doing something about foreign propaganda on the Internet implies new rules for the Internet.


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