Cards Against Humanity Co-Creator Threatens To Make Public Congress' Web History Over Online Privacy Resolution

People talk a lot of trash and nonsense they don't actually mean on Twitter, but one of the people behind a Chicago-based card game is putting his money where his tweets are when it comes to online privacy.

This week, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution that repeals Federal Communications Commission regulations banning internet service providers from collecting, storing, sharing and selling customers' personal information. Under the resolution, ISPS wouldn't need customers' consent to share certain types of data, nor would they need to anonymize their customers.

President Donald Trump still needs to sign off on the resolution — which he's expected to do — before the bans are lifted.

But elimination of those regulations isn't sitting well with Max Temkin, co-creator of the popular party game Cards Against Humanity. Even before the resolution passed, Temkin fired his own warning shot across Congress' bow, threatening over Twitter to "buy the browser history of every congressman and congressional aide and publish it."

And now that the lifting of the FCC bans is almost a reality, Temkin's not backing down from his threat. But he did admit in a post on Reddit that it's not clear if lawmakers' browsing histories will be available to purchase.

"[T]his bill hasn't been signed, the data doesn't exist, and nobody knows what they're talking about," he wrote. "We don't know if there will be any data to buy, how it will work, or what will be available. This means you should be very skeptical of any GoFundMe projects to buy this data. They are making promises they can't possibly keep."

RELATED: Congress Votes Against Internet Privacy Laws: What You Need To Know

But if that information is available, Temkin said he and his company "will do whatever we can do acquire it and publish it," cautioning that the process wouldn't be a quick turnaround.

"This may take a long time," he wrote. "We may have to file FOIA requests. We may have to buy browsing data for Congressional office building ZIP codes and then p-hack our way to statistical significance in an attempt to fish spurious correlations out of unreliable datasets. …"

Despite making the ultimatum, Temkin believes the attention it has generated distracts from the bigger issues of internet privacy that this resolution threatens. Real change, he says, comes from supporting activist organizations and from constituents telling elected officials how they feel.

RELATED: Cards Against Humanity Funds Anti-Donald Trump Billboard Near O'Hare Airport

"[E]ven if we get this data, it's a symbolic victory at best," he wrote. "Our basic human rights, like the right to privacy, are being sold to the highest bidder while the best minds of our generation are here on Reddit asking pro gamers if they want to fight a horse-sized duck or whatever. Real, material change requires sacrifice. You probably can't do it on a computer. … If 100 Redditors called a congressman, it would freak them out and their staff would have to do something about it. It really doesn't take much."

This isn't the first time has Temkin and the card company have taken a public stance on politics. In September, Nuisance Committee — a super political action committee formed in and funded by the sales of Cards Against Humanity packs centered around Trump and Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton — bought a $20,000 billboard near O'Hare International Airport that took a shot at then-candidate Trump.

"If Trump is so rich how come he didn't buy this billboard? Trumpdoesntpaytaxes.com," the 90-foot tall sign read.

When asked why the super PAC financed such a stunt, a spokeswoman said: "We're buying billboard space to call attention to Donald Trump's taxes and to annoy Donald Trump."

photo by tom_bullock | Wikimedia Commons

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