DOJ: Make It a Federal Crime to “Lie” on the Internet

Obama’s Department of Justice will tell Congress today it should have the ability to prosecute people who lie on the internet. It wants to do this by making it illegal to breach the terms of service of websites.

The DOJ’s deputy computer crime chief, Richard Downing, will argue that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) — an amendment to the Counterfeit Access Device and Abuse Act generally used to prosecute hacking and other serious cyber-crime — must give prosecutors the ability to charge people “based upon a violation of terms of service or similar contractual agreement with an employer or provider,” according to Andrew Couts, writing for Digital Trends.

Downing said law enforcement needs the revision in order to prosecute individuals for identity theft, privacy invasion or the misuse of government databases, and other violations of the law.

Orin S. Kerr, professor of George Washington University Law School, told Digital Trends that if implemented the law would criminalize people under the age of 18 who use the Google Search engine. Under its terms of service, minors are not allowed to use Google or its services.