Madrid Spain, Spain (IP) - Interpol is coordinating a worldwide crackdown against persons using the internet while under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs or even pharmaceuticals capable of impairing judgement.
Interpol's role in the crackdown is to assist local police departments in finding and apprehending impaired internet users (IIU) and then seeing to it that prosecutions are followed through in these cases.
The United States had at first been against the plan with some government officials concerned that it would violate the sovereignty of US law. Congress voted to put the related laws into effect and now US citizens could be arrested and sent for trials overseas if caught violating IIU laws.
Critics skeptical of the law at first felt that no one could easily be caught violating IIU law without some serious breech of privacy laws but were soon shocked to learn that over 741 people had been caught and apprehended after being found to be operating the net while impaired.
The ACLU is filing a lawsuit on behalf of the American citizens caught up in this "cybereal nightmare" as they refer to it. One attorney asked the rhetorical question, "What if an impaired individual accomplishes something brilliant while on the internet and at the same time some perfectly sober individual does something really stupid or offensive or harmful ? ...What could you charge the sober user of the net with ?
