234 (114th Congress)) was a proposed law in the United States which would allow for the sharing of Internet traffic information between the U.S. government and technology and manufacturing companies.

[4] President Barack Obama's advisers have argued that the bill lacks confidentiality and civil liberties safeguards, and the White House said he would veto it.

CISPA had garnered favor from corporations and lobbying groups such as Microsoft, Facebook, AT&T, IBM, and the United States Chamber of Commerce, which look on it as a simple and effective means of sharing important cyber threat information with the government.

[12][13] Some critics saw wording included in CISPA, as a second attempt to protect intellectual property after the Stop Online Piracy Act was taken off the table by Congress after it met opposition.

[14] Intellectual property theft was initially listed in the bill, as a possible cause for sharing Web traffic information with the government, though it was removed in subsequent drafts.

[19] In addition, already collected cyberthreat data can also be used to investigate "the imminent threat of bodily harm to an individual" or "the exploitation of a minor," bringing the bill into line with existing law codified by the Patriot Act and the PROTECT Our Children Act[20] in which these two conditions already allow for protected entities to share data voluntarily with the United States government, law enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

[21] Bill sponsors Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, the chairman and ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, respectively, said on April 25, 2012, that the Obama administration's opposition is mostly based on the lack of critical infrastructure regulation, something outside of the jurisdiction of the Intelligence committee; they have also since introduced a package of amendments to the legislation that, "address nearly every single one of the criticisms leveled by the Administration, particularly those regarding privacy and civil liberties of Americans".

[25] Rainey Reitman, of the Electronic Frontier Foundation states, "To date, the authors of the bill have been unresponsive to these criticisms, offering amendments that are largely cosmetic.

Dismissing the grave concerns about how this bill could undermine the core privacy rights of everyday Internet users, Rep. Mike Rogers characterized the growing protests against CISPA as 'turbulence' and vowed to push for a floor vote without radical changes.

[34][35] Dubbed the "Stop Cyber Spying Week", starting on April 16, 2012, many civil liberties groups and advocates raised the awareness of CISPA (through a Twitter campaign with the hash-tags #CISPA and #CongressTMI,) including, but not limited to, the Constitution Project, American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Center for Democracy and Technology, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Free Press, Reporters Without Borders, Sunlight Foundation, and TechFreedom.