Watergate: Are we there yet?

By Suzanne Garment – Bearing in mind the all-purpose scandal caveat — the other shoe may always drop — it looks like what we have in the news is three distinct scandals, each emblematic of a different American political phenomenon.

The Associated Press scandal is the outgrowth of a perennial postwar (we’re talking World War Two) struggle between the press and the national security apparatus. The Internal Revenue Service scandal is a sign of a massive incoherence in the way the country regulates its non-profit groups. And the Benghazi scandal is — well, we’ll see. more> http://tinyurl.com/cq88uqh

Related>

• What the IRS should be scrutinizing, Robert Kuttner, Reuters
• President tries to win back press, Amie Parnes, Hill
• IRS scandal: First head rolls, Peter Schroeder and Bernie Becker, Hill
• White House releases Benghazi emails, Justin Sink and Ian Swanson, Hill
• An Onset of Woes Raises Questions on Obama Vision, Peter Baker, NYTimes.com

IRS abuses power in targeting tea party

By Michael Macleod-Ball and Gabe Rottman – The extraordinary revelation this week that the Internal Revenue Service targeted tea party groups for more aggressive enforcement highlights exactly why caution is needed in any response to the much-vilified Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC (pdf).

It also shows how all Americans, from the most liberal to the most conservative, should closely guard their First Amendment rights, and why giving the government too much power to limit political speech will inevitably result in selective enforcement against unpopular groups. more> http://tinyurl.com/bsgo2we

Related>

• Wonkbook: The good reasons for the IRS’s dumb mistake, Ezra Klein and Evan Soltas, Washington Post

Even After the Lies of Boston, Twitter Probably Won’t Build an Edit Button

By Rebecca Greenfield – The two most damning falsehoods of the Boston frenzy—the unapologetic New York Post cover and the misbegotten outing of a 22-year-old missing Brown student—left many real-time enablers regretful, including many powerful Twitter users.

Just think of all the places a tweet will go: Your feed, your followers’ feeds, then—if it’s retweeted—to their followers feeds. And then there are all the apps and clients that serve all these functions on top of that. Going through each feed and inbox to change that data attached to each message would be a “dicey prospect,” says Evan Prodromou, founder of Status.Net, an opensourced social service. more> http://tinyurl.com/d2f3fzd

Related>

• Analysis: Truth and consequences – a dilemma for Twitter and its users, Gerry Shih, Reuters
• The Medium of the Moment, Matt Buchanan, New Yorker
• The One Function Twitter Desperately Needs, Mat Honan, Wired.com

Good cybersecurity means better privacy

By Steve Largent and Rick Boucher – The debate on cybersecurity has produced a sideshow centered around the belief that added security means a reduction in privacy.

Such views are nonsense. Quite simply, digital privacy cannot exist without cybersecurity. Weak security equals weak privacy. Want better privacy? Raise your security game to prevent hackers from stealing private data. Let the experts from the private sector and government communicate with each other so when they see threats, they can alert others and work together to create a solution. more> http://tinyurl.com/atuw8j7

Related>

• Google Breaks Silence On FBI’s National Security Letters That Demand Its Users’ Data, Andy Greenberg, Forbes

ITU ‘failed,’ says former policy chief

By Violet Blue – Anthony Rutkowski held the position of the ITU’s chief of telecommunication regulations and relations between members in the ITU’s general secretariat from November 1987 to January 1992.

As WCIT-12 wraps up this week, what remains to be seen is how member states would use the new treaties to implement new rules within their jurisdictions, such as the recently agreed deep-packet inspection provisions. Rutkowski told CNET that it’s not entirely clear the changes actually could be implemented. “Again, the provisions they are proposing are a joke. Most if not all the major nations will simply ignore what is in the draft provisions.” Yet Rutkowski pointed out that even still, “Russia and few others may try to exploit the political value.” more> http://tinyurl.com/a5aqyw9

Related articles

• Exclusive: ITU ‘failed,’ says former policy chief (news.cnet.com)
• ITU packet inspection standard raises serious privacy concerns (infoworld.com)
• ITU Approves Deep Packet Inspection (yro.slashdot.org)
• ITU Approves Deep Packet Inspection Standard Behind Closed Doors, Ignores Huge Privacy Implications (cryptogon.com)
• ITU Approves Deep Packet Inspection Standard Behind Closed Doors, Ignores Huge Privacy Implications (techdirt.com)
• Reuters: ITU: Russia Backed By China, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Sudan and the UAE Wants To Take Control Away From ICANN (thedomains.com)
• Revealed: ITU’s deep packet snooping standard leaks online (lxer.com)
• WCIT-12 leak shows Russia, China, others seek to define ‘government-controlled Internet’ (zdnet.com)
• ITU’s DPI standard leaks after email SNAFU (The Register) (go.theregister.com)