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UK Wants ISPs To Be Responsible For Third Party Content Online

An anonymous reader writes "A key UK government minister, Ed Vaizey (Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries), has ominously proposed that internet service providers should introduce a new Mediation Service that would allow them the freedom to censor third party content on the Internet, without court intervention, in response to little more than a public complaint. Vaizey anticipates that Internet users could use the 'service' to request that any material deemed to be 'inaccurate' (good luck with that) or privacy infringing is removed. No doubt any genuine complaints would probably get lost in a sea of abuse by commercial firms trying to attack freedom of speech and expression."

7 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    All sites promoting religion are inaccurate, many government sites are inaccurate and Mr Vaizey himself makes assertions which would be widely deemed as inaccurate.

    Didcot's Got Talent

    On Saturday, I was one of four judges judging Didcot talent at the Civic Hall. Two dance groups, two guitar soloists and three bands, and the winner was the Mojo Pins, who already have a demo tape out there. I judged with whispering Bob Harris of Old Grey Whistle Test fame, and he was brilliant. All the acts were outstanding, and even more impressive was the organisation by Didcot sixth formers, as part of their Young Enterprise project. Well done to all involved.

    This is inaccurate, nobody with any "talent" is going to perform for a moron like Mr Vaizey. I demand this inaccurate blog posting be removed at once!

  2. Impressive Spin by cappp · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I love the hyperbole online. The actual quote states that he was interested in

    setting up a mediation service for consumers who have legitimate concerns that their privacy has been breached or that online information about them is inaccurate or constitutes a gross invasion of their privacy to discuss whether there is any way to remove access to that information.

    . It's all there. A means by which a LEGITIMATE concern over SPECIFIC kinds of information is removed after a REGULATED PROCESS between parties. He's talking about asking the Daily Mail to remove that story where they accidentally labelled you a paedophile. Or that other one where your address is listed as the local supermarket. Or that other one where someone has posted a sample of the text messages you sent your wife. Or maybe even those pictures you forwarded to your entire address book accidentally.

    This is a good thing. Aren't we always harping on about Facebook/Google deliberatly violating our privacy? This guy is suggesting a mechanism whereby that kind of privacy violation can be limited, and everyone immediatly leaps to censorship hysteria.

  3. Re:You got it all wrong! by Jurily · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Stop kidding yourself, there is nothing dangerous or offensive on the internet.

    Stop kidding yourself, and show your kids some Goatse or Zippocat. That said, the "dangerous or offensive" nature does not come from the internet, and is by no means exclusive to it.

    For example, when I was 6, I was told there was an invisible man in the sky who drowned all the puppies in the world (except two), and that this was a good thing.

  4. Re:Which attacks on freedom of speech? by cgenman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would like to complain about Ed Vaizey's opinion about public forums. Where do I go to censor him?

  5. So much for "change" from the UK by jonwil · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Didn't these guys get elected on the promise of LESS censorship and LESS civil liberties violations?
    The only thing they have done so far on that score is to cancel the planned national ID card (and they only did that because it was costing so much money, not because they cared about civil liberties)

    Is there ANYONE we can vote for in western countries like Australia, New Zealand, EU countries, US etc that will actually do something about giving people back the civil liberties they lost in the 10 years or so since some idiots crashed a couple of planes into some skyscrapers?
    Is there ANYONE we can vote for that will do something GOOD when it comes to IP law and not just listen to the big end of town

  6. Re:Truth is stranger than fiction by zmollusc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pfft! I would like to see them TRY to invade England. Our mighty fleet of a handful of obsolescent fighting ships will easily fend off the invaders for the 60 years or so necessary for us to build up our power generating capacity to allow us to make steel (once we have rebuilt the steelworks) and buy back the industrial machinery we sold off abroad that we need to build that steel into tanks and ships (once we retrain all the brighter media studies graduates so they can add up and use a lathe). And it will be simple to flatten the flimsy chipboard houses (that replaced the factories) to make space for factories (and the rail network that got torn up and thrown away).

    --
    They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
  7. Re:You got it all wrong! by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'd never heard of zippocat before this, but from your description I find it way more disturbing than two girls one cup.