Star letter
The government is demanding that search engines and social networks remove terrorist-related content, or links to it, within two hours. But who decides what qualifies as terrorist-related content? No doubt some of it will be obvious, like instructions for making explosive devices, but what about posts and pages that are more to do with espousing a point of view than encouraging someone to take up arms? There are bound to be differences of opinion, and these will vary between countries, and between the liberal industries, encompassing some of the internet giants affected by the government’s plans, and politicians themselves. The latter group, let’s be honest, often comes across as somewhat stuffier.
How are they going to settle the disagreements? Britain isn’t a world leader when it comes to social networks and search engines, and the big names are headquartered overseas. Unless the government can reach an agreement with foreign powers (notably the US with its strong tradition of freedom of speech) its options are limited. Perhaps it will fine those that don’t comply, but what can it do if they won’t pay? Block them? I’d like to see the public response should Facebook, Google, Twitter and co disappear from British browsers.
Let’s hope this isn’t another poorly conceived bit of bandwagon jumping, and that the government has fully fleshed-out, practical plans for tackling extremist content on the web that it’s simply chosen not to make public… yet.