Slashdot Mirror
Twitter To Meet With UK Government About Riots
"Twitter has confirmed that it will meet with the UK Home Secretary on Thursday, after being called in for discussions over the role it played in the recent UK riots. Twitter will send a representative to the meeting scheduled for August 25. Both Facebook and RIM will also send representatives to the meeting in regards to their effects on the riots."
Will there be representatives from the telephone company, and the postal services, to answer for the roles they played in the riots? What about mainstream print, radio, and television media who made others aware of the riots, and carried the idea of unrest to others, who then joined in?
The communication medium is but the messenger.
Go queeen, Go !!
When it happens in Egypt and Libya, its an amazing tool for freedom of speech and the spread of democracy.
When it happens in your own back yard, its a problem.
Yeah, a terrible role to play.
It'd be nice if they just told the government to go fuck itself if they try to interrupt service, but that probably won't happen. Then again, if they do, the government will just use it as an excuse to just kill the internet for "security reasons" next time so we're pretty much fucked either way, it seems.
but in the us all the gvmt institution has to do is to issue subpoena and pretty much all the information is up for grabs.. be it financial institutions, your m$ sexbox profile.. not to mention facebook which is basically founded on selling information of its users. I have to assume that UK wants somewhat quicker access to twitter, fb and RIM... less paperwork, more trees saved. because ya know.. they do care about the environment.
In essence, gvmt backdoor coming to all communication services. How long till that is broken and abused by evil hackers which will require even more draconian surveillance?
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This is not a freedom of speech issue.
Planning crimes on facebook, twitter and RIM (public + persistent + 3rd party corporate), is infinity stupid, and the chav hordes have made it extremely easy to catch.
Oh and next time, use IRC over SSL.
When I first read the summary, I was surprised they even dignified the UK government with a response, much less an actual representative.
But then, I thought to myself, if they didn't, the government would have likely used that alone as an excuse. It really does seem the UK is fucked, either way.
Personally, though, I blame my government for the UK's attitude here. The United States government has pretty much shown the world that a powerful governmental body can get away with anything to a certain degree, unless the people do something about it. Hell, I doubt anything but a freaking revolution, either civil or congressional, could change government views of the effect of internet communication platforms on keeping the peace.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
Twitter does't kill people, tweets kill people.
Had nothing to do with it. Nor the "flash mob" 7-11 robbery. This is pure hype and scapegoating at its best.
The government now locks down social media, for your safety.
...every time somebody runs in to the front of a shopping mall. Why blame the user when you can blame the tool?
I wish there were some way that they could tell the world what happens at the meeting.
They whose government reduces their essential liberties for temporary security, receive neither liberty nor security.
Is British Telecom invited?
I think this is probably the most stupid thing the Tories have done so far.
I'm sure the governments of China, Egypt, Syria, and (har) Libya will also be meeting them, if they haven't already long ago.
Apparently the UK government hasn't been keeping up on the news.
Is this really how all countries end up? Take away the ability for people to defend their freedoms, play on their fears, take away their voice. Then rape them through taxation, banking and consumption.
How dumb can they get.
Twitter only was used by peeps like me in other countries to rebroadcast the pics and vids they tried to pretend weren't happening.
It was Blackberry messenger that was being used to coordinate things.
Total insanity.
Btw, I used to do counter-terrorism ops, and right now high-end automobiles are being burnt in record numbers in Germany.
You can't put the genie back in the bottle - either create jobs for youth and stop subsidizing the rich, or watch your country burn.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Whose idea was it to make buildings out of bricks? Didn't they stop to think that their buildings could be dismantled and converted into missiles? And what is the idea of putting flammable liquids in automobiles? Did no one consider that someone might try to set a car on fire?
They should all give a response in the words of Sir Alex Ferguson: "Fuck off."
[End Of Line]
Or is it: Immediate action needed. LDNers cannot have another evening like last night tonight. BBM clearly helping rioters outfox Police. Suspend it.
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
people to coordinate. The ability to coordinate helps both revolutions and store-robbing riots. Same as weapons can be used in revolutions, self-defence, and armed robberies. That is why the US Bill of Rights Second Amendment is right near the First Amendment: they enshrine very similar natural rights that can both be very severely misused, and yet should not be infringed as a matter of principle.
Now, the UK chose to erode both of these rights for its citizens, in the name of public good, peace or whatever. Enjoy the fine line, then.
I used to do counter-terrorism ops, and right now high-end automobiles are being burnt in record numbers in Germany.
That's a bizarre non-sequitur in the middle of a sentence!
either create jobs for youth and stop subsidizing the rich, or watch your country burn.
England has socialism up to its eyebrows. They've created a nearly-unemployable class of young people by removing any need to work (for the basics). The jobs are there, yet most low-skilled jobs are filled by immigrants (I was in London recently, and it seemed everyone in a service role had a French accent; it was very strange). Jobs programs have been tried, and people would simply not show up, or be so lacking in basic literacy, numeracy, or work ethic that there was no useful way to employ them.
I believe firmly that whoever can find a way to usefully employ all the chavs, neds, and yobs of the world will have invented the post-capitalist economy. MMOs and Farmville have shown that people will do menial, repetitive work for long hours and little compensation - and train themselves on the job to do it! There must be a way to build an economic system around that.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
"England has socialism up to its eyebrows. They've created a nearly-unemployable class of young people by removing any need to work (for the basics)."
You, sir, are an idiot.
I play FrontierVille, not Farmville. Farmville is for neocons.
Besides, I'm working on the next gen Kthulhu Kitchen (tm), the eldritch cooking game, and that runs on an iPad in standalone with networked "gifting".
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"You, sir, are an idiot."
You, sir, presented nothing to counter his argument.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
The UK government were friends with their citizens and followed them on twitter, they'd have a clue what all the commotion was about...
Obviously they will be questioning their respective gods as to why the human race was created to allow this to happen.
Asian gold farming services: do menial task for lazy Westerns in exchange for real gold. Let the very uneven cost-of-living profits keep them fed for weeks without the need for real jobs.
Anyway, here's 56c/hour rates and other info: http://www.1up.com/features/wage-slaves-mmo-goldfarming
Even Korean presidents are using it: http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/08/08/kim-jong-ils-latest-cash-source-is-mmo-gold-farming/
http://www.puma-ferrari-cat.com est une bonne site en google.fr
I'm imagining the meeting of Twitter and the UK Government will look a lot like the animated scenes from Mary Poppins.
Hey, how's it going?
I know it's terribly unpopular to be the voice of reason in a "GOVERNMENT IS BAD" discussion, but this meeting may not be a bad thing. Perhaps the government just wants insight into how they can get advance notice of violent trends. Perhaps Twitter can provide easy access to its data, to find people bragging about the loot they took. Perhaps whatever socioeconomic factors (if any) that led to the riots could be derived from other posts by the rioters, and the government could better understand the problems it faces.
But hey... never mind me. Let's all continue jumping to conclusions anyway. Up next, Linux Torvalds looks at Windows 8. Could this mean Microsoft secretly controls Linux development?
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
Does anybody else perceive this as a kill-switch ploy between that of corporate and government?
Lots of people in the UK know what you're talking about when you say a flick knife. It's a colloquial expression. Maybe its not used correctly (if you're in Ye Olde Guilde of Knifey Makers or something like that) but people here would understand it to be a sharp easily concealed knife that folds into the handle and springs and locks into place, or perhaps is flicked into the locked position by a flick of the wrists. ;-)
We've got quite a lot of pedants here already in the UK so probably we should be grateful you don't live here
Funny you should mention it. I am writing a book called "MMORPG Management" where I describe how the key to effective management is omniscience in pos/neg reinforcement(peer pressure through profit sharing) combined with the ability of employees to instantly monitor regularly updated progress towards an objective.
Other features:
Glorification/embellishment of job duty importance, as well as the ability to decorate/express themselves and "accessorize" their presentation.
The most important feature is having friends as co-workers. This reduces turn over because the job & social life are linked IE badass employees only social clubs.
Human resources needs to get out of the stone ages and start hiring small teams/working groups based on competency vs. Individual degrees/resumes and then management should give these teams work framed as competitive tasks/contests to exploit the gambling mentality(ie:challenge.gov). Ex:"identify a means to cut janitorial expenses by 10%"-> and team "morning shift" won so they get to split 50% of the savings as part of their wages.
-floydmcooper@gmail.com
Twitter in China = FREEDOM Twitter in the UK = NASTINESS Cameron you utter hypocrite.
or will something else be present?
Page 1 of current issue of Private Eye, met police had to deal with similar riots earlier this year but the media were too busy looking at Japan and hoping for a nuclear apocalypse to report on so paid no attention, so it didn't spread.
Shoe, clothing, jewelry, gun, car, match, and lighter companies were all called in for their roles.
How dare they make products that can be used by destructive people!
What do I know, I'm just an idiot, right?
Will they answer all questions 140 characters at a time?
Planning to be moderated ± 1: Bad Pun.
The jobs are there, yet most low-skilled jobs are filled by immigrants (I was in London recently, and it seemed everyone in a service role had a French accent; it was very strange).
I'm sure there aren't many French over here doing that type of job. You sure it wasn't a Polish accent? Lot's of Polish people have come over in recent years since they joined the EU.