In the wake of the second alleged terrorist attack in England in as many weeks, Prime Minister Theresa May is calling for new Internet regulations and the suppression of digital tools that facilitate online “safe spaces” where attacks can be coordinated. The proposal comes one day after a Saturday night attack in London that left seven dead and nearly 50 injured. It also comes on the heels of an increasingly draconian ‘Big Brother’ counter-terrorism strategy being implemented in the U.K.
In her remarks, May said,
We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed. Yet that is precisely what the internet and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide.
She continued:
We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements that regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.
May offered no specifics on how the government planned on using Internet regulations to control terrorist chatter on social networks or other online forums. However, the phrase ‘international agreements’ portends a potentially larger movement by governments and corporations across the world to crack down on speech deemed to be dangerous.
The global corporatocracy has already begun working to restrict extremist speech on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Google — with varying degrees of success — but not everyone believes this strategy will even be effective at disrupting terrorist activity. Peter Neumann, a professor who studies political violence and radicalization at King’s College in London, says Internet censorship will just cause terrorists to move their conversations to encrypted platforms. As far as the use of social media to radicalize new members, Neumann says online messaging alone is rarely enough to mint new terrorists.
Furthermore, efforts by England’s government to criminalize protest and speech — measures that closely mirror legislation being drafted by U.S. lawmakers — have earned its anti-terror strategy, known officially as “Prevent,” the moniker ‘Big Brother.’ Maina Kiai, who served as the U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of peaceful assembly, says “Prevent” is fundamentally flawed.
“Overall, it appears that Prevent is having the opposite of its intended effect: by dividing, stigmatizing and alienating segments of the population, Prevent could end up promoting extremism, rather than countering it,” Kiai recently wrote.
Students, activists, and members of faith-based organizations related countless anecdotes of the program being implemented in a way that translates simply into crude racial, ideological, cultural and religious profiling, with concomitant effects on the right to freedom of association of some groups.
The failure of Western countries to prevent terrorism, in spite of veritable police state infrastructures — and in the U.K., specifically, one of the most powerful surveillance apparatuses in the world — has garnered a plethora of explanations and theories. They range from ‘blowback’ stemming from the now sixteen-year-old War on Terror that has claimed over 1.3 million lives in the Middle East (the same number as low-end estimates of civilian casualties tallied during the Vietnam War) to “false flag” attacks configured to propagate fear in the civilian population and vest more authority in the State.
Draconian regulations on the Internet are likely to only further stigmatize the issue and usurp more civil liberties away from the people. Hopefully, the next Patriot Act won’t have online free speech in its crosshairs.
This will be used to target ANYONE who disagrees with that which is PC. Against fluoridation? Forced vaccinations? Intrusive govt? Trying to find alternative healing because the medical community is useless, crooked & overpriced? Good luck it will all be censored.
Total scam. This is a textbook case of Problem- Reaction- Solution. First, the government of the UK creates the “Problem” by causing massive destruction to these people’s countries. Naturally, they hate the West for this. Next, they secretly bring these people into the UK. When these people commit terrorist acts they get the people to demand that they do something “Reaction” to the problem they secretly created. Needless to say, the “Solution” (?) is less freedom. Needless to say, it won’t be used to restrict the freedom of speech of the real extremists but to restrict the freedom of speech of those who point out the government’s lies.
“The failure of Western countries to prevent terrorism, in spite of veritable police state infrastructures — and in the U.K., specifically, one of the most powerful surveillance apparatuses in the world.”
Didn’t work, so need to give up more and more. I’d like to see more realization of the failures of the police state at keep us safe, but its not in the media narrative.
Yep total scam. Truth and freedom must be suppressed. Let’s hope they don’t succeed and we develop ways to continue to talk to one another.
WW III….it’s spreading….. everywhere I go, people are talking about it…. even the Leftists in my town are buying guns now….stocking up on food and water….beans and bullets…. it’s funny on one hand how they have been trying desperately to ban guns….now they are relying on them as we do…. hahahahaha!!!!…. This crap with the Muslims…. It’s in their Holy book they can…and are duty bound to LIE to the Infidels…. So, every word that comes out of their mouths is a LIE…. All of them… LIE.. They can not be trusted…None of them… We must send them back to where they came from so they may live as they wish…. But not bring that BS here … Oh No…. that will not do….
Easy to see why the internet is threatened with seizure from the government. The freedom the internet provides us all with instant access to news, research material and a ways to communicate with each other. When they take control of this the who is to say you will not need to be implanted with chip for internet access and if appropriate authorities deem you unworthy then you are cut off. We must stop this form of govt intrusion and tyranny.
Sure, why not use the latest atrocity to remove more freedom from the people, to make it much easier to control the masses? The only way to stop terrorism is to stop terrorizing the nations from which the terrorists come. One bad deed deserves another after all. Consider Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya Somalia, all nations devastated by Western invasion and destruction. Enough is enough already!