Congress Tries To Censor Law Prof's Facebook Criticisms
Columbia Law Professor Eben Moglen seemed to have touched a nerve on Capitol Hill when he touted the social networking start-up Diaspora, which he advises, while simultaneously bashing Facebook in his written testimony.
Immediately before Moglen was set to testify at the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, Rep. Zachary Space (D-OH), chided the professor. "Congress tries to foster highest level of decorum," Rep Space lectured. "I would ask you to avoid personal attacks against any companies or company employees.'" These remarks spurred a flurry of tweets from curious industry observers who wanted to know which company Moglen had criticized. That question took a surprisingly long time to answer, thanks to a highly questionable decision to remove Moglen's prepared statement from the subcommittee's Web site. After a round of complaints on Twitter about the apparent attempt to toss Moglen's remarks down the memory hole, privacy expert Chris Soghoian posted a link to a pdf of the testimony hosted by the Software Freedom Law Center, where Moglen serves as director. Shortly afterward, Moglen's original statement reappeared on the House Subcommittee site. What did the professor write that was deemed worthy of censorship? For one thing, he called Facebook's privacy settings "mere deception, a simple act of deliberate confusion." Secondly, he pointed out that Facebook has access to vast amounts of data about people.