The United States shares with France (and many other countries) national and regional elected representatives who have an incredible propensity to propose absurd things about computers in general – Internet in particular. This time, it was Bill Chumley, elected from South Carolina, who put his small piece in the machine of stupidity. In the fight against pornography, he simply proposed a law that would require computer manufacturers to install a software solution on their computers to block pornographic sites.

Obviously, this idea is unrealistic where possible, as our colleagues from The Verge have pointed out: what happens if the people of South Carolina are in the 21st century and buy their material on the Internet and Is sent from another state that does not have this law? Should the local police intercept all parcels and install the small regional software?

Beyond this aspect, Chumley’s proposal is also particularly perverse: it proposes to the manufacturers to free themselves of this obligation by paying a tax of 20 dollars. The customer who buys a blocked computer could do the same. This kind of small software is called ransomware, since it requires a ransom to unlock basic features that have been “captured”. There is no doubt that making a ransomware a state tool to collect a tax would cause an outcry.

The proposal of this 69-year-old Republican has, fortunately, not much chance to be supported.