After London Attack, PM Calls For Internet Regulation To Fight Terrorists (cnn.com)

CNN reports that "At least seven people were killed in a short but violent assault that unfolded late Saturday night in the heart of the capital, the third such attack to hit Britain this year." An anonymous reader quotes their follow-up report: Prime Minister Theresa May has called for closer regulation of the internet following a deadly terror attack in London... May said on Sunday that a new approach to tackling extremism is required, including changes that would deny terrorists and extremist sympathizers digital tools used to communicate and plan attacks. "We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed," May said. "Yet that is precisely what the internet and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide. We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning."

Comments

Re: MO

[Zocalo]

I wish we could, but at this point we're pretty much fucked whatever we do. Depending on how you interpret the election polls (which are probably no more reliable than the last ones anyway), there are really only two possible outcomes in the general election next week:

1. The electorate rallies around the Conservative Party (essentially "UKIP Lite" at this point), which results in at least five more years under Theresa May and a raft of 1984-style legislation as result, but at least *some* chance at getting a non-catastrophic outcome from the upcoming Brexit negotiations.

2. Enough of the electorate decides to vote for other parties that we end up with a hung parliament and all the main parties bickering and backstabbing to try and form a workable coalition which then has to run a government through what might be the most critical period of the UK's history since the Battle of Britain in WWII. That *might* rein in the Orwellian crap at least a few notches, and will almost certainly be the final curtain for Theresa May, but means we'll be going into the first round of Brexit negotiations (which is just one week after the vote, FFS!) like a headless chicken, and probably without much hope of things improving for subsequent rounds.

Never mind being careful what you wish for; the lesson here is that you need to be *really* careful what you vote for, because however this pans out it's going to be on the UK electorate just as much as it is on the politicians they voted for.

Heroes

[myid]

These people are heroes:

1) A British Transport Police officer didn't have a gun. Instead of running away, he fought the terrorists with his baton.

2) As people were escaping out of the back of a restaurant, a woman stayed at the front of the restaurant. She stayed there to block the front door closed with her body, as the terrorists were trying to force their way in. Her blocking the door saved about 20 people, by giving them time to escape. After the terrorists overpowered here and forced their way in, she was able to escape.

I sometimes wonder how unselfishly brave I would be, if I were in a situation like that. I hope I'd unselfishly brave, like those two people.