UK Government Seeks New Web Censorship Powers

oldandcold writes "Given the recent coverage and controversy over Australia's forthcoming web censorship system, it is somewhat surprising (and worrying) that Clause 11 of the UK's proposed Digital Economy Bill seems to have gone by largely unnoticed. It amends the Communications Act 2003 to insert a new section 124H that could give the Secretary of State powers to order ISPs to block pretty much any website for pretty much any reason. Such orders would not require the scrutiny of parliament, or anyone else for that matter, because the Secretary of State would not be required to publish them."

Comments

Bastards.

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking bastards.

You mean like Ireland's blasphemy laws?

[Kyrene]

Ireland passed laws recently against uttering "blasphemy" and no one batted an eye...except on Twitter. A lot of this is getting swept under the rug, and it both shocks and appalls me.

Democracy ?

[bibekpaudel]

And is that called a democracy? I think Britain is a very poor model of democracy, especially when compared to the rest of European countries. Do we still sound credible when we criticize China for internet censorship?

Re:Democracy ?

[bibekpaudel]

Why? Where's your comparison with these other European countries?

Well, for one, here's one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_Index UK ranks 21st overall, and there are 13 European countries above it. The rankings are from a UK based organization.

Re:Democracy ?

[jameskojiro]

" In the infaliable United States Democracy (in which I do not reside) - those people have their democratic rights MEMORIZED, printed off, laminated, and FRAMED above their mantlepiece. "

If only every citizen in the United States did this then the United States would be a somewhat decent country.

Re:What technical obligation to ISPs?

[phoenix321]

We are running out of countries to route our traffic through, quickly.

Well, lets adapt Niemoller for a second:

When they came for China, I chose a proxy in Australia to route around.
When they came for Australia, I chose a proxy in the UK to route around.
When they came for the UK, I chose a proxy in the USA to route around.
When they came for the USA, there was no country left to route through and all my complaints were met with 404s.

Re:What happened to you, UK? You used to be cool

[AliasMarlowe]

The UK used to be cool?
When was this, when it was occupied by the Romans?

Much more recently than that. During the Little Ice Age, when the Thames froze over. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/The_Frozen_Thames_1677.jpg Since then, it's been a progressive loss of cool and loss of reason, reaching to today's hideous macchiavelian antics.

This isn't even the worst part of the proposal

[ais523]

See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html#j164. The proposal also gives the Secretary of State the rights to a) decide the punishment for copyright infringement, and b) redefine what a copyright infringement is. Therefore, he can effectively jail, or worse, anyone he likes for no reason. Also, the law gives him the power to rewrite the law itself; there are some restrictions, but he can just rewrite it to remove them. In short, passing this proposal would give Lord Mandelson a complete dictatorship over the UK. (If you don't believe me, read it yourself; the only meaningful restriction is to have a draft of the changes approved by parliament, and it would be easy enough to slip in a removal of that restriction at the same time as another change.)

The offending piece:

[fiannaFailMan]

I'm usually sceptical about /. summaries and their accuracy, so I looked a little deeper into this one before commenting.

From the parliamentary document:

124H Obligations to limit internet access

20 (1) The Secretary of State may at any time by order impose a technical obligation on internet service providers if the Secretary of State considers it appropriate in view of—

(a) an assessment carried out or steps taken by OFCOM under section 124G; or

25 (b) any other consideration.

The "any other consideration" part is what would concern me. Yup, this looks like the real deal. Gives the SoS a lot of power with little oversight.

Re:Web sites on Double Secret Probation

[the_womble]

The man who will make the decisions is

1) Has been forced to resign twice
2) Does not hold any elected office
3) Popularly known as "the Prince of Darkness"

No, the last is not a joke - google for "mandelson prince".

Re:Another Brick in the Wall

[internewt]

I agree. Inch by inch, Britain sinks into the muck of totalitarianism. All for the common good.

I've found a method that shuts up those closet fascists who are willing to give away everyone's privacy etc. is to remind them that millions of people gave up their lives in the last century to protect the freedoms we have in the UK, and that what they are advocating is an insult to their memory.

It is utterly emotionally loaded, and even has a sub-text of war is good, meaning that authoritarians simply don't know what to say.

The most closed minded will still stick to their guns of censorship, submitting to authority, prohibition, etc., but it could work to change the views of a few.