In a statement delivered to the House of Commons regarding the recent disorder in London and other British cities, Prime Minister David Cameron said:
Mr Speaker, everyone watching these horrific actions will be stuck 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.
Sounds like a well intended idea in theory, but the potential for abuse is so great that it’s scary.
Its upside would be that it would make the lives of offenders a little harder, but we’d all pay for that with an erosion of our civil liberties.
What would constitute “ill”-use and who would decide it? How would they determine beyond any doubt that someone is planning to riot? How would they rule out fake messages posted by hackers? How would people be protected against abuse? If Cameron’s views regarding those issues are anything like his concerns about publishing the photographs of looters, this cleansing of the free flow of information could turn into a bigger catastrophe than the one they’re trying to prevent.
And as I said yesterday, no phoney human rights concerns about publishing photographs will get in the way of bringing these criminals to justice.
