It’s an old joke at this point that anything on the internet is officially on the internet forever. It’s also an old joke that politicians have a poor grasp of how the internet works: Remember “a series of tubes,” courtesy of Ted Stevens? Dianne Feinstein may have topped her former colleague, though, by demanding a book be erased from the internet.
Feinstein’s comments, regarding the recent arrests of two women who wanted to join ISIS, are actually even dumber than you think. See for yourself:
I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the internet.
As the entire internet was quick to point out, you can’t remove a book from the internet, especially not one that’s been in print off and on for 40 years and available from reputable bookstores. Also, there is the small matter that the Supreme Court has made it abundantly clear that this book, and anything like it, is covered under the First Amendment. You’d think a senator would be familiar with the law of the land.
The sad thing here is that the only people in danger from The Anarchist’s Cookbook is anybody dumb enough to try to use it. The original text is nothing more than anything William Powell could find at the library about bombs, poisons, and other stuff a 19-year-old kid would think was a tool of rebellion. Powell never tried any of it, so the results are more hilarious than scary if you know anything about the subjects in question.
Hopefully, somebody explains how the internet actually works to Senator Feinstein. As much as we’d like another “series of tubes” meme, we’d rather have politicians who understand the internet passing laws about it.