CISPA sponsor tweets, then deletes, link to support's financial incentives

CISPA sponsor tweets, then deletes, link to support's financial incentives:
Rogers has been a vocal supporter of the Cyber IntelligenceSecurity Protection Act (CISPA), which critics say will effectivelyeliminate privacy on the Internet under the guise of enhancingcybersecurity.
The congressman retweeted a message from MapLight, anorganization billing itself as a “nonpartisan researchorganization that reveals money’s influence on politics,” thatlinked to an article revealing that the House IntelligenceCommittee - which Rogers currently chairs - “received 15 timesmore from pro-CISPA groups than anti-CISPA groups.” The tweetwas preserved on Politwoops, a website that logs deleted messagesfrom politicians.
According to the MapLight article, Rogers has been on thereceiving end of donations totaling $214,750 from interest groupsbacking CISPA. He deleted the retweet 23 minutes after postingit.

It only gets worse for the congressman, though, as digitalactivists made him an online punchline on Friday for his frequentuse of the Twitter hashtag #CISPAalert. Most likely unknown toRogers was the fact that each time the phrase is included in atweet, the domain registrar Namecheap donates one dollar to theElectronic Frontier Foundation, a group dedicated to stopping thelegislation.
CISPA has come under fire from privacy advocates as well asInternet giants including Craigslist and Reddit for the powers itwould provide government officials and corporations. The bill wouldallow companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Verizon and many othersto share information about web users without any legal obstructionwhen their networks are under attack. The government could thenprosecute individuals based on the personal information passedon.
Critics of the bill have complained that its broad languagewould virtually legalize surveillance, while proponents have deemedit necessary in the battle to stop hackers. The legislation failedto pass through Congress last year but will be voted on inApril.
“The bill would allow companies to share private userinformation with the government in ways that are currently illegal,and provide legal immunity to companies that share information forvaguely defined ‘national security’ purposes,” said theInternet Defense League in a Tuesday statement.
Earlier this week Martin Libicki, a senior management scientistat the RAND Corporation, warned the House Homeland SecurityCommittee to be wary of the line between realistic projectionsregarding cybersecurity and fear-mongering.
“The more emphasis on the pain from a cyberattack, thegreater the temptation to others to induce such pain — either toput fear into this country or goad it into a reaction that reboundsto their benefit,” he said. “Conversely, fostering theimpression that a great country can bear the pain of cyberattacks,keep calm and carry on reduces such temptation.”