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UK Government Considers Blocking Twitter, Blackberry in Wake of Riots
Thursday, August 11, 2011 10:11 AM
NIKI2
Gettin' old, but still a hippie at heart...
Quote:Following discussion on whether or not social media was "responsible" for the recent riots and looting in the United Kingdom, the British Government is looking at ways to reduce the likelihood of social media being used to organize riots or violent protest again. Officials are considering both banning specific users from sites like Twitter or Facebook if they're being believed to be plotting criminal activity or, much more extremely, empowering the police to essentially close social media access in the U.K. during times of emergency. ..... It seems that British Prime Minister David Cameron is serious about the first option, according to this recent statement: "Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organised via social media. Free flow of information can be used for good. But it can also be used for ill, and when people are using social media for violence we need to stop them. So we are working with the police, the intelligence services and industry to look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via these websites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality. I have also asked the police if they need any other new powers." These potential new powers are part of Cameron's pledge to do "whatever it takes" to restore order to British streets following the past five nights of rioting. Cameron has, unsurprisingly, come under fire from free speech proponents for his suggestions, with Jim Killock of the Open Rights Group saying, "David Cameron must be careful not to attack these fundamental needs because of concerns about the actions of a small minority." More at http://techland.time.com/2011/08/11/u-k-government-considers-blocking-twitter-blackberry-in-wake-of-riots/
Thursday, August 11, 2011 10:45 AM
RIONAEIRE
Beir bua agus beannacht
Thursday, August 11, 2011 11:43 AM
Thursday, August 11, 2011 3:42 PM
ANTHONYT
Freedom is Important because People are Important
Quote:"British Prime Minister David Cameron thinks he's found some culprits to blame in the recent riots that have rocked London and other cities -- Facebook and Twitter. Saying the "free flow of information" can sometimes be a problem, Cameron's government has summoned those two social-networking sites, as well as Research In Motion, makers of the BlackBerry, for a meeting to discuss their roles during the violent outbreaks."
Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:38 PM
FREMDFIRMA
Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:50 PM
Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:51 PM
KWICKO
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." -- William Casey, Reagan's presidential campaign manager & CIA Director (from first staff meeting in 1981)
Thursday, August 11, 2011 4:56 PM
Quote:Originally posted by AnthonyT: Hello, I think converting text to a graphic might be an easy way to skip past the snoopers, who would then have to devote much, much more resources in order to perform OCR on the images. Then, when they get that far, some kind of embedding would become necessary, such that the obvious text is overlaying an inobvious image that contains the actual message. Maybe an app could handle the conversion based on an agreed upon encryption seed. Only people with the right seed could break down each other's images to reveal the underlying text. The NSA has machines that could crunch all of this, but not en masse. Doing it once is easy. Doing it a million times every hour all day is harder. Then they'd still need to sift the data for anything relevant, distribute it. Stuff would be weeks old before they reached human eyes, if they ever reached human eyes before simply being archived. But this is all grasping and imagination on my part. I'm not tech savvy enough for any really good ideas. --Anthony _______________________________________________ “If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all” Jacob Hornberger “Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.” Mahatma Gandhi
Thursday, August 11, 2011 5:34 PM
1KIKI
Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.
Friday, August 12, 2011 6:25 AM
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