At the end of a week in which the House of Commons defeated Labour’s draconian plans to regulate the press, the Tories revealed their own draconian plans to regulate the internet. The culture secretary, Matt Hancock, has pledged to make Britain ‘the safest place in the world’ to be online. But when the world’s ‘safest’ internet is currently found in China, where access is heavily restricted and censored by the state, it becomes clear how terrifying the government’s safety agenda really could be.
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Samizdata quote of the daySamizdata Illuminatus (Arkham, Massachusetts) · Civil liberty, Law & Regulation · Internet · Privacy & Panopticon · Slogans & Quotations · UK affairs May 27th, 2018 |
 13 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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What do you want- consistent politicians? They feel that they’ve got to regulate something! Why else would they go into politics?
The one good thing about the pile of dogshit masquerading as a Conservative government is that they don’t have a fucking clue.
As our government — of any socialist stripe as they are increasingly merely variations of the same red wash — are not on the side of the British people then nothing should surprise us. They say one thing and then do ten things completely the opposite. Happily, a safer internet will primarily protect politicians from criticism of such nasty and inconsistent actions.
The only surprising thing about the government’s moves to censor the internet is that it has taken them so long to get around to it.
It only took the state 4 years to nationalise and neuter the BBC after its formation in 1922, starting a period of heavy regulation of broadcasting which persists to this day.
The Taming of the Shrew:
WHAT? There’s no mustard for your internet?
WELL! We can’t have THAT, now CAN we!
Why does this country have to be ‘the safest place in the world’ to be online?
Are our children particularly gullible or susceptible? Do we have more online predators than any other country? Are our online shoppers the thickest in the world? Do we have the least secure devices?
What is the evidence that we need more protection than the Germans or Canadians, or Danish or Israelis or all the rest?
Or maybe, are our politicians pathologically meddling arrogant control freaks?
Um, tricky one.
Is Samizdata also subject to thw judicial silencing of th UK press?
If by that you mean publishing pictures of people going for trial with declamatory statements in a way that might prejudice that trial, then yes, we are indeed subject to that. But if you mean pointing out how long standing subjudice practice works in the UK, we can report on that and point out what a huge tactical error it is to confuse that with wider (and very real) abridgement of freedom of speech issues. Not a problem.
My top, non-expert, internet safety tips.
1. Don’t be a ‘friend’ on Facebook of someone you have never met.
2. Don’t be on Facebook.
3. Don’t send pictures over the internet of yourself naked, or of your genitals, to anyone, ever, even if you are a US Congressman.
4. Don’t take pictures of your genitals (except on good medical advice/request).
5. Don’t adopt a new lifestyle based on selling non-existent crap* to people, especially when told by someone that they have changed their own life by so doing, and they want to share their comparative advantage with you for free. *Does not apply to bankers, it’s what they do.
6. Don’t pay any invoice that anyone sends you just because the sender purports to have a woman’s name.
7. Turn off location settings on your cameras.
8. Avoid banking with the TSB.
This is one of the weaknesses of all democracies, especially Representative types- Government expands because politicians win office by claiming to be able to fix something, and then feel obliged to expand government if they win office, so they can fix problems.
The politicians and officials do not really care about “the children” or about sexual matters – this is about crushing political dissent. And the same people who would crush political dissent talk of “Freedom of Speech”, “Freedom of Expression”, and “Freedom of Association”.
And the most horrifying thing is that they (the establishment) do not know they are contradicting themselves – they use such terms as “Freedom of Speech”, “Freedom of Expression” and “Freedom of Association” as nice sounding word music, there is (in their minds) no specific content in these terms. They can use all these terms and then say (for example) that Tommy Robinson “got what he deserved”. And what they do nasty-common-people like Mr Robinson today, they will do to “nice” people later.
“The culture secretary, Matt Hancock, has pledged to make Britain ‘the safest place in the world’ to be online.”
The Streets of London on the other hand, are a completely different kettle of fish.
‘f*****’ morons, the lot of ’em.
Why have we still got a ‘culture secretary’ in the government?
Perry de Haviland: “If by that you mean publishing pictures of people going for trial with declamatory statements in a way that might prejudice that trial .. ”
A misrepresentation of fact. The defendants were appearing for sentencing, the trial for these guys was over and they have been found guilty.