Quick: Lets Ban Something!

The government has floated the idea of shutting down social networking sites during major riots, so that trouble makers will not be able to use them to coordinate their activities. Needless to say this idea is stupid, knee jerk authoritarianism of the worst kind, as Obo explains here.

When looking at history it soon becomes apparent that riots occasionally occurred before Twitter was even invented- hard to believe I know but when I looked it up on Wikipedia it turned out there have been a handful of high profile riots throughout British & indeed World history. Who knew?

The only difference between people inciting violence by word of mouth or by Twitter is that with Twitter anyone dumb enough to advocate violence (Hello Jody McIntyre) leaves a trail of evidence. Shutting down Twitter & Facebook would make it harder to convict rioters later on.

There is also the small matter of it being a punishment for the innocent as well as the guilty- some people have used social media to instigate violence but many more have used social networks to find out where trouble is happening and avoid it.

All in all the proposal is gimmicky, counter productive and unworkable.Witless authoritarianism did not die with New Labour.

Least Terrifying Threat Ever

The arrest of hackers from the group "Anonymous" has prompted this terrifying threat-

Last night Anonymous issued a statement branding the UK arrests "a serious declaration of war" against the group of internet "hacktivists"

.First of all I'd be interested to see how Anonymous can issue statements, because it isn't an official organisation with a spokesperson to present the groups decisions to the world- it's a bunch of youngish men who meet online anonymously to discuss shit and share porn.

In fact when looking at the home of Anonymous- 4Chan's /b/ board- you can see that the main interests of Anonymous are getting a laugh* and wanking. To the extent that they're into hacking it largely seems to involve invading the Facebook accounts of teenage girls they know, not bringing down the world financial system. It isn't that they can't cause problems for people- it's just that the people they cause problems for are more likely to be 11 year old girls they are cyber stalking than the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Some people from Anonymous will try to hack UK websites in retaliation for the arrests- but so what, it isn't as if their previous attacks have caused huge disruption- they brought paypal down for a few hours- oh no. I suspect most of the members are actually jealous of the arrested hackers seeing as when they go to prison they are likely to be the only members of Anonymous to be having regular sex.

* Some of the stuff is quite funny- the 'Pedobear' meme for example originated there, although that is at least partially a response to the amount of child porn that gets posted on there.

Just Because You Got Stabbed Doesn't Make You An Expert

We have laws against inciting violence so what exactly is Stephen Timms proposing here:

An MP stabbed by a high-flying university student inspired by al Qaeda told how it was like a "bolt out of the blue".
Stephen Timms backed calls for an overhaul of websites hosting terror videos as he said Roshonara Choudhry's online radicalisation was "puzzling and alarming".

Indeed given that he acknowledges that his assailants radicalisation is "puzzling" he appears to acknowledge that he doesn't actually understand what motivated her so he is essentially calling for a ban on a wide range of unspecified material.

Heroes

There can be few people more deserving of the title "hero" than this anonymous Wikipedia vandal, although landmine disposal experts are a close second:

FIFA president Sepp Blatter was left embarrassed after receiving an award from the South African government with an unwanted nickname, seemingly taken from his altered Wikipedia entry.

Blatter, 74, was announced on the South African presidency's website as "Joseph Sepp Bellend Blatter" after picking up the Order of The Companions of O R Tambo award for his contribution towards the 2010 World Cup.

A saboteur is believed to have altered his profile on Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia

Ironically this means that the Wikipedia entry was more accurate than the official record.

Paedo-Fingers

Me, sarcastically, earlier this month:

according to Home Secretary Alan Johnson the British and American governments are thinking of "ways to flag up when a convicted sex offender goes online", because computers can be made to detect Paedo-fingers when they start tapping at a keyboard.

In the news today:

New research from Newcastle University has claimed paedophiles could be identified on internet sites by the way they type.

With just ten keystrokes, American Professor Roy Maxion claimed to be able to establish the sex, age and cultural background of a user, which could help in the fight against paedophiles grooming youngsters on the internet.

I suppose paedophiles on Facebook usually type one handed but beyond that I am sceptical as to whether this will work.

Ban The Web

The government, the BBC and Daily Mail have decided that they critical fact about the murderer Peter Chapman is that he met his victim on Facebook. Indeed according to Home Secretary Alan Johnson the British and American governments are thinking of "ways to flag up when a convicted sex offender goes online", because computers can be made to detect Paedo-fingers when they start tapping at a keyboard.

The focus on the least important aspect of the story, Facebook, is particularly absurd given that Chapman's crimes, including abductions and rapes of women, began well before the internet era. If he was prevented from meeting potential victims on the internet he could just as easily have gone back to the manner in which he found them before the internet. The danger wasn't that he was allowed online but that he was allowed out of prison.

On the plus side perhaps the hysteria about the internet will at least result in parents forcing their children out of the house, thus doing wonders for the child obesity rate.