Mrs May Takes A Leaf Out Of The Prc's Philosophy On Internet Freedom...

[Kromovaracun]

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/technology/theresa-may-to-create-new-internet-that-allows-government-to-control-and-regulate-what-is-said-online-35733509.html

"Some people say that it is not for the government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet", the manifesto says. "We disagree."

Is this not somewhat authoritarian?

[EDDIE51]

I ask everyone to read the link to this story it really is 'Big Brother' !!
Total denial of 'freedom of speech'
Very telling is the way they are trying to sneak this in 'under the radar'
hiding it behind other stories!

[Kromovaracun]

"We will become leaders in regulating the use of personal data."

"Great. I suppose that means ISPs won't be able to sell our information, as they can under EU laws we're supposed to be throwing out?"

"Hush, slave."

[Peter Pedant]

yeah I had spotted that one
BUT
she wont give up The Human Rights Act or membership of the doodah - human rights court ( ECHR) - NOT the ECJ mind
( as predicted time and agan by New Judge)

so I wasnt quite sure what was going on there TBH

[youngmafbog]

Two ways of looking at it, one is the knee jerk reactions above the second is that the internet is out of control and by-passes rules we have outside of it.

The internet is used for many things like hate speech, terrorist propaganda and training, grooming, unregulated pornography that children can access, bullying and many more. The problem Governments will have is finding the fine line between protecting the public and being 'Big brother'.

[Kromovaracun]

I know what you mean about a fine line but this doesn't so much cross it as prance over it. I can sort of see why harvesting data might have security benefits (although I still think it is creepy), but the rest is madness. There is no clear security benefit to restricting what people can post - certainly no security benefit that is worth sacrificing free speech for.

"Hate speech" laws have exactly the same problem on the internet as they do in the real world, but worse. They create gray zones and empower the authorities to decide what is "hateful" and what isn't. Already in Scotland there have been a bunch of prosecutions for people writing silly (but not dangerous) things on Twitter on the grounds of "hate speech". Social media sites (under govt pressure) already use AIs to silence/shadowban people using INCREDIBLY broad-brush criteria for what constitutes "hate speech" May's proposal will intensify that kind of madness even further.

And I'm sorry, but the pornography thing is bull. If parents want to protect their kids, that is their responsibility. The government cannot simply cry "oh please think of the children" and then expect the entire internet that all of us use to be reoriented along the lines of surveillance, data profiteering and speech control without anyone objecting.

This is madness.

[emmie]

i don't like the idea of my data being harvested, Big Brother does definitely come to mind.

[EDDIE51]

emmie ''The Investigatory powers act' which allows 'data harvesting' has already been sneaked in > From the link
'It comes just soon after the Investigatory Powers Act came into law. That legislation allowed the government to force internet companies to keep records on their customers' browsing histories, as well as giving ministers the power to break apps like WhatsApp so that messages can be read.'
This new idea goes much further!