Utah Republican Laments Congressional Tech 'Ignorance,' Lack Of Nerds

Via: quickmeme.com

WASHINGTON — One of the House's youngest members has a message for his colleagues — get some more nerds before you start messing around with the internet.

Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz Tuesday blamed congressional "ignorance" for it's handling of internet regulatory policy, particularly when it comes to social media and blamed a lack of tech savvy lawmakers for the defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act a year ago.

"We helped kill SOPA," Chaffetz said, adding that at the time "The plea that I made was 'You all are performing surgery on the internet and theres not a nerd in the room.'"

Chaffetz went on to say most members do not understand the language of the internet or "how it works."

"That ignorance could lead to a bunch of bad legislation ... they just flat-out don't know" how it works, Chaffetz lamented.

Meanwhile, Chaffetz said Congress and the public need to become more open to new forms of technology — notably the new Google Glasses that have caused a remarkable backlash.

"I tried [Google Glasses] the other day. They are cool," Chaffetz said, brushing aside questions of privacy.

"We should not be afraid of the glass." Chaffetz insisted. "Any piece of technology can be misused. There's worse things to be scared about than a new pair of glasses."

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