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China Praises UK Internet Censorship Plan
mormop writes "The Chinese government has praised UK Prime Minister David Cameron's plan for censoring social networking sites at times when the government feels threatened, believing it legitimizes China own behavior. Quoting Chinese state media website Global Times: 'Britain's new attitude will help appease the quarrels between East and West over the future management of the Internet. As for China, advocates of an unlimited development of the Internet should think twice about their original ideas.'"
You know you are succeeding in fascism if China praises You. The Standard & Poors of Fascism.
Just because others do it doesnt make the position more legit.
In related news Germany called from the late 30's; they think that your immigration politics are awesome!
Seriously, how far down the road are you when you get that kind of support from China.
Next up: North Korea praises your foreign politics.
In related news Germany called from the late 30's; they think that your immigration politics are awesome!
Oh the Nazi's would have loved our immigration politics over the last decade or so.
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Just like the War against Terror allowed everyone to justify punitive actions against their own "internal terrorists", like in Chechnya, and more recently Syria. Great - thanks a bunch Mr. Cameron. Next time, think before you open your mouth, please.
If enacted, those provisions would be used against dissenters just like the Terrorism Act is now.
I personally know people who've were detained under the Terrorism Act for walking through Charing Cross station with placards in their bag on the day of the royal wedding. They were released hours later and I believe are planning legal action.
You're a fool if you think laws giving those kinds of powers to police to control social media won't be used against political dissenters.
Nick
Of course that's alright. Censorship with qualifiers is all fine and good, right? China has plenty of qualifiers, too, you know. People who care for their freedoms shouldn't accept hollow excuses for fascism, because as history readily proves, fascists have no shortage of them. Censorship is never the right answer, no matter how many times nor how loud people argue that it is.
Further, I believe that the Prime Minister and in fact most of the House of Commons have no idea how the internet works, as the PM repeatedly talked about "media companies and social media companies that are displaying these images," as if the internet is a TV network where every site makes a conscious decision what to show. I was utterly shocked that this is the person about to (attempt to) regulate social media. Britain need to get its act together, because it is starting to look more desperate and fanatical than the US, which is a very low bar to set indeed.
Great Intellect...
Which is somewhat my point. What provisions? None have been proposed. None. What we have here is a comment made in a speech. Not a policy paper. Not a proposal. A comment.
That comment has in turn lead to claims of fascism, censorship et al. How can we expect rational debate and careful consideration of complicated issues if we all jump to extreme reactions even at the slighest provocation. In this specific case those claims are, as yet, unwarranted. By all means freak out when there's a law being proposed - exercise your considerable civil liberties to their utmost - but at this point, with the information and contect, it's unwarranted.
As time goes on, more and more I get the feeling China realizes the absurdity of the world and wants to exploit it to their own gain. It takes some serious gall to go and embarrass your rival by associating them with yourself, but China just managed an astounding success at it.
Great Intellect...
The single currency is a german experiment, no-one else has an inherent desire for it, only a partial inclination as they are sold the benefits by the german financial controllers.
The rest of europe knows that german government has not given up on the idea of german control of europe, but since they lost the war they have to resort to other means.
It's still not working. Jaw jaw jaw is better than war war war but europeans don't actually want to be that unified.
I've no beef against germans or germany - if they want to unify europe, they are going the right way about it this time, but it won't work I think - but they are allowed to try, and good luck with the idea - but I don't support it, never did, and it isn't working.
blog.sam.liddicott.com
No, it isn't necessary. I welcome a world where possession and distribution of child pornography and hate literature, and production of hate literature are entirely legal.
Are you so well trained that you cannot conceive of someone not finding this idea as horrifying as you do?
China has called itself Communist since 1949, but like most "Communist" countries, it hasn't really BEEN communist for most of that time.
You do realize that "hate literature" is what is known as an "opinion", right? Are you really saying that governments should (I know many already do, but I'm talking about what the right thing to do is) have laws legislating what opinions you are allowed to have? Orwell had a term for that - thought crime.
"The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." ~Thomas Jefferson
So instead of throwing rocks and burning cars, London could be the setting for a Wild West shootout. What an improvement!
-- Let us endeavor so to live that when we pass even the undertaker shall be sorry. -- M. Twain
That's bollocks. The UK has a load of CCTV (which seems damn ineffective looking at the results from last week) and ANPR is being aggressively installed without debate (next big liberty row ahead), but there's no separate paramilitary police (France, Germany, US National Guard [?}, et al.) or a nationwide police force under direct govt control (e.g. FBI). We almost certainly have a very advanced spying of phones and t'internet (hello GCHQ and thanks IRA)- and it's more than likely that all phone calls are monitored. But read up on Echelon; it's not just the UK.
I was in a Ventura, north of LA, a few years ago and we found out about the ATF. They came into a bar below our hotel and made the drinkers overturn their pints 'cause the ratio of alcohol/food in the bar's accounts was not the same as the licencing conditions. That's an intense police state.
So, you protect those who think differently, by expelling those you disagree with? You've got a sense of morality there that Stalin would approve of.
Great Intellect...
The point where it was NOT just state capitalism. That's about all that the USSR ever achieved as well.
Replacing many corrupt employers with ONE corrupt employer is not communism at all, not even a little bit and that's all that any of the so-called "communist states" ever did.
True communism can only be anarchic, which rules them all out. The very concept demands that the means of production be owned AND MANAGED BY the people who DO the production.
You may agree or not agree with that ideal - but it's a simple fact that no so-called "communist state" has ever achieved it, or even really tried to.
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