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The UK Government wants to turn off web sites it doesn't like, that's the real aim of its plan to takeover the .uk DNS system.
On Wednesday a certain David Hendon who works for the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, said that the domain name industry needs to toe the government line on phishing, spam and "bad content".
Now, no one is in favour of phishing and spam, but what on earth does this bureaucrat mean by "bad content"?
We don't have to look far. Hazel Blears, a career politician who is currently Communities Secretary, recently made noises about shutting down blogs she doesn't like. She particular doesn't like the blog of Guido Fawkes. It's not surprising she doesn't like that blog because he has broken many stories that have been very embarrassing to the government. This is what she said:
Unless and until political blogging 'adds value' to our political culture, by allowing new and disparate voices, ideas and legitimate protest and challenge, and until the mainstream media reports politics in a calmer, more responsible manner, it will continue to fuel a culture of cynicism and pessimism.
Now, the thing is that Guido is a new and disparate voice. It's just that he's not the sort of new and disparate voice that Blears and the other aparatchiks in the government like. She only wants ones authorised by her.
This government is the most two-faced, cynical and authoritarian in the rapidly-becoming-less-free world. They have already banned certain types of protest in London. Now, they only want you look at content, they've authorised.
Welcome to hell.
Hat-tip: Samizdata
yeah, well said, did you hear yesterday onthe news that now they want us to "inform" on our family and friends who we believe are habitually breaking traffic laws. honestly it made me sick to my bones, i remembering reading 1984 in school and thinking 'thank god that didn't happen'...
Alex Jones' websites (infowars.com, prisonplanet.com etc.) are already banned by the government on many networks in the UK.
I think this is a little sensationalist. Were the government to actually try to ban websites that we're not in themselves illegal, they would run into issues with the European Convention on Human Rights, of which Britain is a member, which protects freedom of expression and freedom of speech.
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"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin (and off course Civ4 ;-)
Posted by Rik on 2008-11-21 08:59:09.