MESSAGE
| DATE | 2017-06-07 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Re: [Hangout - NYLXS] The Foreign Policy Faliure that keeps on
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2013/11/27/is-the-uk-sleepwalking-towards-internet-censorship/#31c7ac691bac
Is The UK Sleepwalking Towards Internet Censorship?
Emma Woollacott ,
Contributor
I cover the control of content on the internet.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
Just last week, Google GOOG -0.68% executive chairman Eric Schmidt
predicted that internet censorship would be a thing of the past within
ten years.
Speaking at Johns Hopkins University in Washington, he said: "First they
try to block you; second, they try to infiltrate you; and third, you
win. I really think that's how it works. Because the power is shifted."
He added: "I believe there's a real chance that we can eliminate
censorship and the possibility of censorship in a decade."
English: David Cameron's picture on the 10 Dow...
David Cameron: wants more websites blocked. Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Schmidt was basing his prediction on improvements in encryption. Google,
along with Facebook, Yahoo and, today, Microsoft have all announced
major improvements in security following the recent revelations from
former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about government spying.
"We have strengthened our systems remarkably as a result of the most
recent events," Schmidt said. "It’s reasonable to expect that the
industry as a whole will continue to strengthen these systems."
But to take this view is to consider only half the story. Because for
censorship to end, a population must want it to end: and while that's
certainly the case in many repressive regimes around the world, some
established democracies appear to be sleepwalking towards an internet
where your government controls what you see.
Here in the UK, a storm over child protection online has been whipped up
in recent months by populist politicians and the Daily Mail - yes,
that's right, the newspaper that likes to photograph a 14-year-old
'flaunting' her 'womanly curves', or an eight-year-old 'leggy beauty'.
The first move came earlier this summer, when prime minister David
Cameron announced plans to introduce voluntary internet filters that
would block pornographic content, with the aim of making it harder for
children to view.
And ten days ago, to great fanfare, he seized as a personal triumph
Google's plans to tighten online search results - and topped this by
announcing plans to go after child abusers on the dark web. The moves
have attracted some derision from knowlegeable observers: few child
abusers start their evening's entertainment via the Google search box,
and the £1.5 million the government's putting into penetrating the dark
web won't go terribly far.
Cameron knows all this perfectly well, of course. But the announcements
do achieve two things that are very important: first, appearing like a
man who cares about ordinary families - and, second, softening up the
population for a censored internet.
And the next stage has started already. Yesterday, an extremely telling
exchange between Cameron and Labour MP Paul Goggins was spotted in
Hansard, the official transcript of parliamentary debate, by an
eagle-eyed Reddit reader. Hidden away in the lengthy document covering
October 23 was Cameron's response to a question about 'Islamic extremism'.
"We have put in place some of the toughest controls that one can
possibly have within a democratic government, and the TPIMs [Terrorism
Prevention and Investigation Measures] are obviously one part of that,"
he said.
"We have had repeated meetings of the extremism task force — it met
again yesterday — setting out a whole series of steps that we will take
to counter the extremist narrative, including by blocking online sites."
What's astonishing is how well these tactics appear to be working.
Making it harder to access child porn sites, naturally, has almost total
public support. And with much of the population confused about the
difference between site blocking, ISP filtering and tweaks to the Google
algorithm, Brits are softening to the idea of censorship in their millions.
There was virtually no complaint earlier this year when ISPs were
ordered to block two dozen file-sharing websites and search engines.
Nor, I suspect, will Cameron's comments about blocking 'extremist' sites
cause the concern that they should. But while piracy and child abuse -
with occasional notable exceptions - can usually be identified through
the judicial process, there's no word on how Cameron intends to do the
same with terrorist sites - and it's not hard to imagine 'mission creep'.
"I'm an Iranian and this is EXACTLY the way it started in Iran,"
comments one Reddit user. Another adds: "Russia reporting in. I confirm,
that's how it starts."
What's different in this case is that much of the UK is welcoming these
moves. The end of internet censorship worldwide? Good luck with that, Eric.
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
http://www.nylxs.com - Leadership Development in Free Software
http://www2.mrbrklyn.com/resources - Unpublished Archive
http://www.coinhangout.com - coins!
http://www.brooklyn-living.com
Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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