Slashdot Mirror
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."
Why stop at regulating the Internet? They were driving a white van when they carried out the attack so clamping down on white van use seems like a good idea right now. They were also carrying knives so those must be made illegal or their sales closely monitored.
What I'm waiting for is the usual statement that 'these men were already known to the security services', further proving that all of the Internet monitoring and phone tapping is of no use whatsoever.
That's what this is actually about. "Oh noes! Terrorists! We must immediately implement my agenda of Internet censorship, which is actually about porn not terror but shut up!"
You know what I'm fed up with? Politicians who crap their pants every time a terrorist does anything. That means you Ms May. You're doing exactly what they want you to do. For all Thatcher's faults, she didn't act like you and the majority of those politicians who proclaim themselves anti-terror do.
Terrorists are not going away. Either live your values, or live in fear. Your choice.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
"Madam, a bunch of barbarians with knives jumped out of a van and killed civilians!"
"Begin spying on people on the Internet. That'll surely prevent it from happening!"
As if said barbarians are using internet to communicate at all, much less for openly discussing their acts... "Nahoul, have you acquired the weapons of our holy jihad to take place on London Bridge on June, 3th?" — "Yes, Assoud, very long sharp knives and a Hertz van".
They probably discuss shit in private in some back alley or something, geez.
Does she have any evidence these people actually used the internet to plan what they were doing?
And if so, why didn't all the existing mass surveillance catch them? Is ratcheting up the level of surveillance really going to help? That was their excuse for implementing it to begin with, and so far it hasn't.
There is no end to it:
(1) call for more censorship and surveillance.
(2) another attack happens anyway.
(3) goto step one, because it must not have been enough yet.
She is trying to shift blame onto the internet and companies that make secure apps, because she has utterly failed herself. As Home Secretary and now as PM, she has slashed police numbers by nearly 20,000 and tried to make up for it by increasing the use of ineffective surveillance.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I'm impressed with this device you have that can predict the future
Not that hard.. the current crop of terrorists are all 2nd-3rd generation immigrants that have never shown any desire to adopt western values. It's very likely that the next generations of immigrants aren't going to do any better, especially since they can just move into the current Muslim dominated neighborhoods, and stay far from kuffar. And that's not even counting IS militants among the immigrants.