PM Cameron Plans Great Firewall Of Great Britain

[DPS Computing]

Taken from my site, DPS Computing - Your Ultimate Computing Website! (and written by myself of course!)
Direct link to article - PM Cameron Plans Great Firewall Of Great Britain | DPS Computing

UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, today announced plans that the government was considering passing legislation to block social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as the Blackberry Messenger Service (BBM) during times of ‘civil unrest’.

This action has been prompted by the recent UK riots which insurers have said will cost the country “well over one hundred million pounds” to put right.

David Cameron said, “Everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck by how they were organized via social media”. “When people are using social media for violence we need to stop them,” he added, “so we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”

The move by the coalition government, which is seen as highly controversial, is likely to come across opposition from sections of the public as well as some of the businesses running the services themselves.

Comments:

I'm personally quite worried about this. I mean this Government have started off first by saying "We need to block torrent sites" - which in themselves are not illegal. They aren't hosting files, they're hosting text data which may or may not link to dubious content. Now they're moving onto "We need to block social networking sites in times of civil unrest". Who is going to decide which sites class as social networking sites? And who is going to class when we are undergoing "civil unrest". For me, it seems like a very slippery slope down to government censorship of the Internet. I think that the government definitely needs to take better advice on this as traditionally governments from the 3 major parties have been very out of touch when it comes to technological and computing issues. I also see the Prime Ministers recent statements on this subject as very much reactionary politics to please the people, but that he has very little chance of being able to implement successfully.

[Ben Stones]

A bit sensationalist to call it Great Firewall of Britain David lol - and I bet some press organisations/papers referred to it as that too. Either way I think it isn't solving the real issue here is it? It's a cultural issue, in a way. And I don't mean British culture but I mean it's a culture problem because things have changed, times have changed. It's like trying to prevent people speeding by adding more legislation, bigger fines...it won't work completely. People won't stop speeding because it's just the way we are - if we're in a hurry we'll speed; it's much faster at 40mph versus 30mph hence people will speed at 40 instead of 30. To be honest, I think all these laws need to be removed IMO and just let it be. There will be accidents but at the end the conscience will be on the peson who caused it (for most people). I'm sure there are sensible people out there - millions in fact - who wouldn't speed dangerously but all these laws are just restricting...why doesn't the government focus on trying to understand, learn and try and help towards the core issue here, which is us! Or otherwise give up if there isn't and just let it be... instead of adding laws that are half useful and in most cases dictate to us (yes, dictate) as to what we can and cannot do. Why are we told by a group of people what we can and cannot do? I understand it's for the better good of everyone to ensure accidents don't occur but I think people should be allowed to do what they want for most things and let them decide as to what they want to do - I'm sure most of us will be sensible when driving to ensure the safety of ourselves in our car. It's just my opinion anyway and the way I see it...

[DPS Computing]

A bit sensationalist to call it Great Firewall of Britain David lol - and I bet some press organisations/papers referred to it as that too. Either way I think it isn't solving the real issue here is it? It's a cultural issue, in a way. And I don't mean British culture but I mean it's a culture problem because things have changed, times have changed. It's like trying to prevent people speeding by adding more legislation, bigger fines...it won't work completely. People won't stop speeding because it's just the way we are - if we're in a hurry we'll speed; it's much faster at 40mph versus 30mph hence people will speed at 40 instead of 30. To be honest, I think all these laws need to be removed IMO and just let it be. There will be accidents but at the end the conscience will be on the peson who caused it (for most people). I'm sure there are sensible people out there - millions in fact - who wouldn't speed dangerously but all these laws are just restricting...why doesn't the government focus on trying to understand, learn and try and help towards the core issue here, which is us! Or otherwise give up if there isn't and just let it be... instead of adding laws that are half useful and in most cases dictate to us (yes, dictate) as to what we can and cannot do. Why are we told by a group of people what we can and cannot do? I understand it's for the better good of everyone to ensure accidents don't occur but I think people should be allowed to do what they want for most things and let them decide as to what they want to do - I'm sure most of us will be sensible when driving to ensure the safety of ourselves in our car. It's just my opinion anyway and the way I see it...

I wouldn't call it sensationalist!!! lol. How about the title is changed to "PM Cameron plans ad hoc Government Censorship in breach of human rights"? It might sound sensationalist also, but it's all so very true!...

BTW, I agree that what you said about speeding a lot of people believe. I have done occasionally myself (mainly accidental of course!). But research has shown that increasing your speed by up to 10mph over the limit compared to someone who is travelling at the speed limit will save roughly 30 seconds per 30 minutes of journey. And of course you're more likely to have an accident, which believe me, takes many many weeks to sort out so all the 30 seconds these people "save" they lose because they have more accidents. Not only do they lose the extra time, they lose some more time on top of that due to the amount of time and effort that has to be put in post-accident .