Slashdot Mirror
UK Government Crowd-Sourcing Censorship
angry tapir writes "The UK public can report 'terrorism-related' Web sites to authorities for removal from the Internet under a new program launched by the British government. The program is a way in which the government is seeking to enforce the Terrorism Acts of 2000 and 2006. These laws make it illegal to have or to share information intended to be useful to terrorists, and ban glorifying terrorism or urging people to commit terrorist acts."
I hereby report "slashdot.org".
Good luck with that.
No, seriously, all the best to those making a grand attempt to remove something from the internet without just causing it to be spread around even more. I imagine you'll have many fun years of failure.
Scaring large groups of the population by threatening to report them for a terrorism-related fate of certain doom could in itself be considered an act of terrorism... Maybe not by the standards of the 2000 and 2006 laws, but surely by the future 2012 law am I required to proactively report your attempted terrorism on "slashdot.org".
Citizen: "Ossifer, I've looked at this website and it is terism"
Plod: "So you admit to looking at terism? Go directly to Belmarsh. Do not pass go"
Always a horrifying thought, being reported by your neighbors.
I work with an elderly West German lady. She was telling me that her East German friends had grown a lifetime of distrust for just about everyone. Some East Germans that grew up steeped in this mindset still keep new friends at arm's length, even today.
Also, the story reminded me of this gem:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/Facts-Are-Stubborn-Things/
Because they scare the sh*t out of me, and I'm pretty sure they're doing it to influence my vote.
I'm sure that should be http://ministry_of_love.direct.gov.uk/ .
(If you've not read Orwell: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministry_of_Love )
http://twitter.com/onion2k
What worries me is the term: 'intended to be useful to terrorists'; this is so broad a definition, in theory anything could be deemed as useful to terrorist. For example, how to fly a plane, how to drive a car, self defense techniques. It also concerns me what implications to freedoms this may have on non-violent polictical protest sites i.e. any site that may critise a governments policy. I am a UK citizen and am becoming increasingly worried as my freedoms are being slowly litigated for my 'own good' to combat terrorism. Reminds me of a joke on Red Dwarf: 'Report your friends, family and neighbours... wonderful prizes to be won.'
I would hazard to guess based on the media reports that Britain's radical Muslim problem is only topped by the Netherlands (where prominent critics of Islam have been routinely murdered or credibly threatened with murder). There was even a survey done of the British Muslim population that said that about 40% of the young Muslims in the country want to live under Sharia.
The British government is going to have to start rounding up the radical clerics and deporting them. Hell, banish them from the United Kingdom altogether. The problem is, they know they'll inflame a lot of anti-British sentiment if they do that. Then they'll have to either start cracking skulls left and right or start en masse rounding up and deporting the Muslims who go to those mosques, deport them and put a marker on them that permanently marks them as a ne'erdoweller who has no business ever setting foot on British soil again.
The British National Party is getting support now precisely because the common man in Britain can see what the elites can't: you can't have two nations living inside the same country, especially when one nation is composed of hostile immigrants who won't adapt. The British government has two choices: either solve it now by harshly cutting out any part of the Muslim population that looks even remotely likely it sympathizes with Islamists, or face the prospect that in 20 years as demographics shift, a group like the BNP will stage a coup and take matters into its own hands militarily.
The political correctness of the British government is not doing genuine moderate Muslims any good because it's creating an environment where the extremists can thrive under "diversity" and the native population can be slowly radicalized against the entire immigrant population starting from the working class up (IIRC, the British working class were the primary support behind the BNP when it recently won a small, but worrisome amount of the vote for the first time).
This is a wonderful idea. Let's call the volunteer participants in this program Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter .
Apparently, owning a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook is a jailable offense. I therefore should report amazon.co.uk who sells it. And since its not limited to british sites, I am pretty sure I read on wikipedia the mechanics on how thermonuclear weapons work. At least 1940s/1950s era weapons. In a world where information is criminal, only criminals will have information.
There are two kinds of fool. One says, This is old, and therefore good. And one says, This is new, and therefore better.
Not quite, from TFA:
So when we find some .co.uk site with instructions on how to take down our infrastructure, we can report it. Although it then goes onto say while basically a good idea, few people who come across actually useful info will know what to do with it, followed by some lawyer quoted with this little gem:
"I don't think the police anticipate a huge number of submissions."
Now the form seems to have been publicized, maybe he'll be proved wrong?
Check
Check
and check.
So I reported the Subway (The Tube in the UK) schedules as being dramatically helpful to terrorists. Not only to target the subway itself but they might use it to get to their unrelated targets. Coming to think of it, let's shut down all Internet access cuz who knows what them terrorists will use it for...
The worse part about this site is that they have recaptcha on it but verify the request in javascript.
Hence you can stick this request on your spam bot...
https://reporting.direct.gov.uk/bin/submitter.php?report_type=1&report_url=reporting.direct.gov.uk&report_desc=GeorgeOrwellWasRight
...after you're already slipping, can you?
This will a) provide nothing b) will destroy a lot c) won't cure paranoia
Dear God help us.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
Content deemed illegal by the U.K. includes videos of beheadings, messages that encourage racial or terrorist violence and chat forums revolving around hate crimes, according to information on Direct.co.uk.
(emphasis mine)
YouTube comments, anyone?
I accept I know nothing. Insulting my ignorance is wasted on me.
The British government isn't actually stupid enough to...
There is no true sentence which starts this way.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Could everyone stop it with the "ooh, X is useful to Terrorists, let's ban that!!1!" comments?
I'm as uncomfortable about some of the ramifications of this law as anyone else here, but the key phrase you're all ignoring is intended to be.
Wikipedia, the Tube, etc - all useful to terrorists, not intended to be useful to terrorists, not illegal.
A site enabling people to donate money, time, etc to terrorist causes - useful to terrorists, intended to be useful to terrorists, illegal.
Now please, by all means rail against the possible civil liberties violations, potential for misuse and abuse, etc, but let's not rewrite the law so it says something other than what it does. Doing so, and complaining about things that are not covered by it only harms otherwise legitimate complaints and concerns and makes those working against it look foolish and thus easier to dismiss.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
King George III is dead. Some time ago. Sorry to break it to you so harshly.
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter.
A bad analogy is like a leaky screwdriver.
Don't give them ideas! ;)
But yes - there's the Internet Watch Foundation (which also crowd sources its censorship - their website has a big red button for you to report stuff), which censors blocked webpages for about 95% of UK users (a few ISPs have yet to implement it, but the Government wants it to be mandatory for all). Allegedly it's only for "potential" child pr0n, but we know from the Wikipedia-censorship episode just how broadly they interpret that.
For anything else, it seems the Government is so far preferring to take down the source, and/or criminalise possession of the material.
The Government have repeatedly told the ISPs that if they don't do it "voluntarily", they'll pass a law forcing them to do it. And from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7904607.stm , Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said: "Currently in the UK, 95% of consumer broadband connections are covered by blocking. The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%."
Yes, they're so far "only" at 95%, but that just means they're not all the way there yet. It is Government mandated though.
It's the worst of both worlds. We're being forced into it by the Government, but because it's handled by a non-Government entity, there's no oversight or right of appeal, and the Government just say "Oh it's nothing to do with us, the ISPs 'chose' to do this".
...only outlaws will have knowledge.
Maps are arguably the most useful source of information for terrorists.
How else can they get their bombs to the correct location in a foreign land?
Explosives can be used by terrorists to harm innocent people.
Chemistry describes how chemicals react...to create explosions.
Physics describes how force is applied...during an explosion.
Math is used extensively to solve formulas...in both Chemistry and Physics.
Words are used to represent information...that describes how to make bombs.
Paper is used to convey language...which could describe terrorist actions.
Food is an important resource...that helps all terrorists survive!
You don't want to help the terrorists do you?
Then, you understand why we're removing all of your surplus food items, writing utensils, books, maps, televisions, and home computers.
Do you have a license for those vocal cords?