More Web Censorship??

UK Planning Another Censorship Attempt

James Brokenshire, the UK Crime and Security Minister, has announced his determination to save the United Kingdom from websites which aren’t “British” by censoring the web. Minister claimed the end of the free Internet in the United Kingdom by revealing his plans to order Internet service providers to block websites believed to be too dangerous for the people.

Minister explained he will also create a special department to identify and report material considered too dangerous for publication on the Internet. Brokenshire announced that the unit in question will be responsible for censoring a so-called “extremist content”, which perhaps follows the success off the model to crack on Internet child abuse. You have probably heard of the Internet Watch Foundation, partly industry-funded, which investigates reports of unauthorized child abuse pictures in the web. The outfit can ask ISPs to block or take down websites containing such images. As a result, there’s no child porn in the UK Internet now thanks to this measure.

Minister pointed out that Prime Minister, David Cameron, wanted to see a similar model for terrorist material. Despite numerous “freedom of speech issues”, the government believes it can have a process in place to test what is against the law.

In the meantime, ISPs’ good appeal process might overcome some of the public’s concerns. Apparently, if the government decides to block Welsh or Scottish Nationalist websites, it will have to explain to a judge why they are deemed “extremist”. This might make sense. However, less clear would be websites organizing such things as student protests.