UK Government Moves Aggressively to Censor and Control the Internet
Michael Krieger | Posted Friday May 19, 2017 at 9:48 am
I’ve got family in town, so today’s post will be brief.
I’ll just leave you with the following dystopian excerpts from today’s UK Independent article titled, Theresa May to Create New Internet that Would Be Controlled and Regulated by Government:
Theresa May is planning to introduce huge regulations on the way the internet works, allowing the government to decide what is said online.
Particular focus has been drawn to the end of the manifesto, which makes clear that the Tories want to introduce huge changes to the way the internet works.
“Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet,” it states. “We disagree.”
Thanks for clearing that up.
Senior Tories confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the phrasing indicates that the government intends to introduce huge restrictions on what people can post, share and publish online.
The plans will allow Britain to become “the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet”, the manifesto claims.
It comes just soon after the Investigatory Powers Act came into law. That legislation allowed the government to force internet companies to keep records on their customers’ browsing histories, as well as giving ministers the power to break apps like WhatsApp so that messages can be read.
The government now appears to be launching a similarly radical change in the way that social networks and internet companies work. While much of the internet is currently controlled by private businesses like Google and Facebook, Theresa May intends to allow government to decide what is and isn’t published, the manifesto suggests.
The manifesto even suggests that the government might stop search engines like Google from directing people to pornographic websites. “We will put a responsibility on industry not to direct users – even unintentionally – to hate speech, pornography, or other sources of harm,” the Conservatives write.
“Other sources of harm.” Can’t wait to see the ever-expanding government definition of that.
Perhaps most unusually they would be forced to help controversial government schemes like its Prevent strategy, by promoting counter-extremist narratives.
The manifesto also proposes that internet companies will have to pay a levy, like the one currently paid by gambling firms. Just like with gambling, that money will be used to pay for advertising schemes to tell people about the dangers of the internet, in particular being used to “support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms”, according to the manifesto.
The Conservatives will also seek to regulate the kind of news that is posted online and how companies are paid for it. If elected, Theresa May will “take steps to protect the reliability and objectivity of information that is essential to our democracy” – and crack down on Facebook and Google to ensure that news companies get enough advertising money.
If internet companies refuse to comply with the rulings – a suggestion that some have already made about the powers in the Investigatory Powers Act – then there will be a strict and strong set of ways to punish them.
Given how willing tech companies have been to comply with government spying in the past, it’ll be interesting to see how they respond to this dangerous, authoritarian power grab.
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In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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Source: http://tapnewswire.com/2017/05/uk-government-moves-aggressively-to-censor-and-control-the-internet/
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I don’t think many people saw this. Google and FB already work with different govts. In this case it’s USGinc., al qaeda and google working together, something that should have landed all parties in a military brig (AUMF). Mort wants to be emperor. I am willing to bet the tech giants have been in this since the inception stage.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/wikileaks-publishes-documents-showing-google-helped-al-qaeda-syria/
If you can’t control the information you can’t control the message and TPTB and their lackeys in government need to control the message. Too bad so sad they won’t be able to stuff the genii back in the bottle to reverse the mindset of the disaffected as it is already too late. Of course the government and those it represents, and it ain’t the people’s interests. can always resort to full on oppression as that does seem the direction they are intent on heading as push comes to shove. See ya’ll on the barricades sooner or later as eventually something has to break.
addendum: I see the Syrian News Perspective web site has been down for three days so perhaps the news nazis have struck again? Shades of the take down of the memory Hole Blog being shut down for posting other people’s work questioning the Sandy Hook official narrative and tearing it apart.
BRF, I was just reading the following information when my computer went dark.
http://www.trtworld.com/magazine/how-a-pakistani-journalist-exposed-the-cias-most-secretive-operation-358912
Hopefully your back up. Power outage? I read the link provided. The CIA has a very dark side that one could call evil personified. It seemed to have honed its ‘skills’ during the Vietnam War (genocide) when it developed the Phoenix Program which has been the template used ever since in multiple wars, both covert and overt. They operate without a conscience and could give a crap whether their victim is innocent or not. I believe it was Orwell that wrote ‘The purpose of torture is to torture.” Of course in America the Phoenix prototype from this pogrom in the waiting are the ‘fusion centers’ which along with certain NDAA sections allow the US military to indefinitely detain anyone, being a lowly citizen, accused of nebulous aiding and abetting a listed terrorist group. The FBI was looking at using this during the Occupy protests along with other more lethal solutions. The Chicago police have been accused of operating sites that abuse citizens rights after arrest. It just goes to show the monolith the people are up against in maintaining and establishing their freedoms under a neo-feudal fascist ruling class made more sinister by modern technologies..
If the internet will be regulated by the government, it will become just as boring as newspapers nowadays are. Which will lead that people will no longer search the internet for news. Instead they will actually start to do something, e.g. start a real life conversation about the things they have on their mind with friends and neighbours. And when this happens, it will be bad for advertisement purposes.
But it would be good for activism, because, let’s be honest, most of the activism on internet is like writing on the wall. Activism occurs when people interact in real life with each other. So, I am not sure if it would be such a bad idea if May forbids free speech on internet.
My bet is: it will never happen, but it is a good scare monger to propose every once in while that we will enter an era where free speech is no longer available on internet. Heck, it will give our perception managers a headache when internet is regulated by the government, because then they will then lose an important tool: knowing what is on people’s mind.
Willem,
You make very good points about meeting in person. However, there should not be restriction of free speech, anywhere. Govt. restriction on speech is always dangerous. The Brits often seem to be test cases for other nations. They were one of the first to put cameras everywhere. Now they are everywhere in the US and other nations. May seems to be doing proof of concept.
Both your ideas and the idea of freedom of speech on the internet should be carried out in the UK.
As of now, both various govts. and private corporations are trying to limit our access to information which does not agree with the transmission belt. Even people who work locally could be shut up under this law. Further, while working locally is extremely important, we should be allowed to know what is happening nationally and internationally. If the govt. takes complete control of this access to information, it will be difficult to inform either ourselves or others in person or over the net.
In World War 2 Great Britain fought against fascism, today they embrace it.
I suggest reading 1984, George Orwell. The fight against Eurasia, control over everything. It’s a slow motion prophecy coming true.