Politicians, particularly those enjoying the benefits of office, are understandably concerned with maintaining and bolstering their support with a view to securing an extension of their tenure. The more principled amongst them will try to achieve this through persuading the electorate that they are doing a good job in protecting and advancing the latter’s interests, ideally because they are actually doing so. However, there are, always have been and always will be, those who choose a different tack, and who are prepared to use less well-intentioned means to secure and advance their position. The latter approach tends to predominate when those seeking to retain their power lack legitimacy. This observation, given recent proposals relating to control of the internet and the widespread unpopularity of Westminster politicians, should give us grounds for concern.
Yesterday, The Daily Mail reported that certain MPs have responded to the complaints of some constituents regarding the ease with which children are able to access hardcore pornography via the internet by proposing the blanket application of an automated blocking system preventing access to internet porn. It stated:
“Internet users should automatically be blocked from accessing pornography at home to stop the surge in children seeing adult material, MPs will demand today.
Anyone wanting to view hardcore images online should have to ‘opt out’ of a special filter, according to the panel of MPs and peers looking into child protection.”
The article later draws attention to the fact that there are already a number of free internet filters readily available that parents can download to prevent their children from accessing such sites, which suggests that the grounds for such legislation are lacking. However, it is an observation by the blogger Quiet Man that caught my attention, for he noted that if the state is able to legislate to impose such a filtering system on the internet to protect children, might not it then be tempted to legislate to ‘protect’ the public from views that it deems to be unacceptable?
In recent years the internet has allowed genuine debate to flourish, enabling views that are ignored in mainstream politics and the media to be given an airing, whether they be good, bad or patently mad. It has facilitated the emergence of new types of political activism, and highlighted negative phenomena characteristic of sections of certain “communities” that fly in the face of politically correct orthodoxy. As those who criticise multiculturalism are generally stigmatised as “far-right”, “fascist”, “racist” and even “Nazi” by certain campaign groups and elements within the media which are also attempting to fabricate links between mass murderer Anders Breivik and individuals and groups critical of Islamism and various facets of Islamisation, might not mainstream parliamentarians be tempted to extend censorship into the realm of online politics? Fabricated claims about a “far-right” or “neo-Nazi” threat could be employed as a pretext for automatically screening out websites and blogs that are deemed to be beyond the ideological pale. What implications might such a measure have for freedom of thought and expression in the UK? It would seem that such a move could be very harmful and result in problems being ignored and hidden instead of being addressed and solved peacefully.
Interesting post. I read the article on the Daily Mail website and noted many of the comments mirror your feelings too, particularly this one:
ReplyDelete"How long before its political websites or anti-government blogs for example? Big Brother is very scared of the freedom the internet gives us. As for children viewing objectionable content there are countless software providers out there with filtering applications to prevent such website being viewed. It just means parents have to take the responsibility themselves, rather than allowing the nanny state to do it for them. Firewalls already allow you to prevent websites like these being accessible - or are parents just not bothered and would rather blame everyone else??"
Which raises another point. People who want a free and open internet are to be told they will need to 'opt out' of a blanket filter. This of course lists everyone who doesn't conform to the governments crackdown. If they insist on these draconian measures why not allow parents to 'opt in' instead meaning the internet is unrestricted for the rest of us? I bet they don't get many takers though.
This government is as bad, if not worse, than the last labour shambles that ruined this country, and given the restrictions of freedoms they are determined to implement we are heading the same way as China.
You make an interesting point with respect to the possibility of the Government being able to compile a list of "undesirables" using such a blanket filter. This would indeed place this country in a similar position to China in terms of its censorship of the online world, with who knows what implications for the expression of dissident views and the welfare of those who hold them.
DeleteAlthough I did not expect much of the Coalition Government, I have been somewhat taken aback by just how bad it has been, with the worst (in my opinion) elements of Conservative policy being combined with the worst of the Lib Dems: i.e. globalist free market economics plus multiculturalist illiberalism. In reality therefore, what we have differs very little from the Labour Party. In terms of the big three parties, do they really offer us a wider compass of political choice than the different wings of the Chinese Communist Party? At least the Chinese Communist Party possesses a concept of the national interest, which the Conservatives, Lib Dems and Labour do not.