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UK Gov't Plans To Censor "Extremist" Websites Via Orders To ISPs

Posted by timothy on from the say-fellas-since-we've-got-this-stuff-in-place dept.

Not content with blacklisting certain kinds of pornography, writes an anonymous reader, according to this news from The Guardian, "The UK government is to order broadband companies to block extremist websites and empower a specialist unit to identify and report content deemed too dangerous for online publication. The crime and security minister, James Brokenshire, said on Wednesday that measures for censoring extremist content would be announced shortly. The initiative is likely to be controversial, with broadband companies already warning that freedom of speech could be compromised."

9 of 208 comments (clear)

  1. Gaining speed down that slope... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    n/t

    1. Re:Gaining speed down that slope... by RocketChild · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm very surprised that they moved so quick to do this so provocatively. It seems like that mission creep takes several years before it actually shows up. But that smoke screen of "think of the children" blew away quick. So...that leaves me wondering. What is "really" next?

    2. Re:Gaining speed down that slope... by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The department shall be called "The Ministry of Truth" or MINITRU for short.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
  2. Well, by Dartz-IRL · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When Terrorism is 'Any action that is intended to influence the government', what is extremism? Any idea that the current sitting government doesn't like?

    There was once another group of people that went out of their way to censor information their people received, to hide atrocities committed in their name and smash an idea that didn't fit the party line.

    As I recall, at one stage, the UK did quite a bit to stop them.

    --
    So there I was, scribbling down some notes off the PC screen by hand, when I reached for the keyboard and Ctrl-S'd.
    1. Re:Well, by Internetuser1248 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      IRA, Hizbollah and Hamas are all nationalistic organisations in countries that are under intense external pressure, either politically, militarily or economically, to such an extent that the general population are suffering. The same was true of Germany in the 1930's. While I agree with the points you make I feel that most discussions on this topic miss the most important point of all. Yes democracy can throw up some problem leaders, but ignoring the circumstances that lead up to each of these cases is failing to learn lessons from history. While it is possible that removing the treaty of Versailles may not have prevented the nazis' rise to power, it seems almost certain that Hamas would never have been elected without the Israeli blockade and attacks. It also seems hard to imagine the IRA getting any power in a world where Ireland was not subject to brutal repression for a couple of centuries.

      Democracy is not the problem, it is imperialism that is the problem. Desperate people act desperately, and voting is no exception.

  3. Nobody listens to science, sadly. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Historically, far and away the most dangerous information a web site can host is the idea it's good, necessary, and proper for a government to have the power to censor.

    That's just based on a silly metric called megadeaths, though.

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:Nobody listens to science, sadly. by 0123456 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The world needs a hero.

      The world needs to stop looking for heroes. The belief that an almighty hero will ride into town and save us all is the root cause of much human suffering, from Hitler to Stalin to Mao to David Cameron.

      When humans finally accept that someone with the power to save them is also someone with the power to enslave them, we might actually be able to build a sensible society.

  4. Re:Its almost like... by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Its almost like they WANT an uprising on their hands...

    Imagine the frustration of today's governments. They imprison us en masse, they torture us, they let the 1% rape the 90%, they basically piss away the rights we took back from the old-world monarchies as fast as they can...

    And we just sit around and take it. "Oh well", we say, "at least they keep me safe from dying of something slightly less likely than choking to death on a goldfish".

    Can you see how unsatisfied our leaders must feel at that level of rolling over by those they seek to oppress? "Stop hitting yourself in the face", the bully says, and here we stand around actually hitting ourselves in the face over, and over, and over. Takes all the fun out of it!

  5. Re:Extremists? by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The United States of America was founded by armed political extremists.

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!