Cameron Says People Radicalized By Free Speech; UK ISPs Agree To Censor Button

An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Techdirt: A few years ago, we mocked then Senator Joe Lieberman's request that internet companies put "report this content as terrorist content" buttons on various types of online content. The plan went nowhere, because it's a really bad idea, prone to massive abuse. Yet, over in the UK, some apparently think it's such a grand idea that they're actually moving forward with it. This isn't a huge surprise — the current UK government has been going on for quite some time about banning "extremist" content, and just recently ramped up such efforts. And now it appears that a bunch of big UK broadband access providers have agreed to play along: The UK's major Internet service providers – BT, Virgin, Sky and Talk Talk – have this week committed to host a public reporting button for terrorist material online, similar to the reporting button which allows the public to report child sexual exploitation. They have also agreed to ensure that terrorist and extremist material is captured by their filters to prevent children and young people coming across radicalising material.

Comments

The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[TheCastro1689]

A lot of people are going to complain about the freedom of speech or expression, but that's a pretty American thing. Most countries have limited freedoms of speech, the UK included. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F... I wish more countries had absolutely protected speech, but somehow things that are "offensive" to any ONE person are vilified. I'm sure a lot of people would have wanted to censor MLK Jr. and others, it's not just terrorists and nazi's that use freedom from opression to get their points heard. It seems a lot of people forget that.

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[Anonymous Coward]

Let's not take the UK as an example, though. The UK is pretty bad compared to most of Europe. It's closer to Russia in this regard.
People are literally sent to prison for racist tweets there.

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[_xeno_]

I love how the Democratic Party invention of free speech zones somehow became a "Dubya" thing. They may have only become widely covered starting in 2000, but they were originally an invention of the DNC to keep pro-life protestors away from their 1988 convention.

Both parties have been using them since the 2004 elections, so it's not like you can lay the blame solely on the Republicans either. Both parties do it.

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[Anonymous Coward]

The Tea Party groups have a high statistical rate for tax fraud. The IRS investigates people who don't pay their taxes. Image that.... right wingers who don't want to pay taxes.

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[timeOday]

Taking your time in handing out a highly questionable tax break is pretty far from what blatant censorship actually looks like.

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[lgw]

The Tea Party groups have a high statistical rate for tax fraud. The IRS investigates people who don't pay their taxes. Image that.... right wingers who don't want to pay taxes.

If that were true, surely the IRS would have simply cooperated with the ongoing investigation instead of destroying evidence. Imagine that ... a political leader abusing the power to tax to have a chilling effect on his critics. Or don't you think the parties will be flipped the next time this happens?

Re:The UK doesn't have freedom of speech

[TheP4st]

but free speech itself is still alive and well

Not as well as it used to be, and if corporations continue having the influence over lawmakers they have today things are going to get much worse before getting better. For an example look into the so called food libel lawsfood libel laws and for examples of how these laws effectively have made people cautious to the extreme in bringing forward even the most modest of criticisms, watch the documentary Food, Inc.