Silence the terrorists
THE ease with which evil plays the web giants has been illustrated by the massacre in new Zealand.
It’s not enough to demand a probe by competition regulators and wait for the long-delayed White Paper on internet harm.
there is an imperative to deny terrorists the platform and publicity of social media.
Surely there is an obvious solution that does not involve more reports and inquiries to keep the can bouncing down the road at great public expense?
treat the internet giants as publishers, like newspapers and broadcasters, strictly liable in law for all content on their sites. a short act of Parliament would suffice.
their current status as platforms on which others post must change. the argument that this would inhibit free speech is fatuous: what freedom instructs on bomb-making, urges insurrection or films mass murder?
It would cost the internet giants to ensure legal compliance. the vast
profits on which they pay minimal tax would be slashed. What chance is there that Parliament will grasp the nettle and stand up to these vested interests? JOHN LAWRANCE, Enfield, Middlesex.
Save the planet
RATHER than going on strike over climate change, schoolchildren could set an example to their parents.
They should insist that they are no longer given lifts by car to school, but walk or use public transport.
They should stop using their games consoles, mobile phones, tablets, laptops, PCs and TVs as they all require energy to make and run.
And they should demand that they do not fly abroad for their family holidays. G. J. MITCHELSON,
Barnehurst, Kent.
Cheers to living well
THE Government’s campaign to publicise the dangers of alcohol is timely and commendable, for there’s little doubt that drink can wreck lives, destroy relationships and devastate health.
But amid the hysteria, let me present a case for the defence. Properly handled, alcohol enhances the spirit, stimulates the senses, produces feelings of goodwill toward our fellow man, inspires great poetry, art and literature, and offers relief at the end of a harrowing day.
It is an inconvenient truth for the temperance brigade that moderate drinkers live longer than teetotallers.
I do not regret my wild nights carousing with drunken Mexicans; drinking the local firewater chang and rakshi with yak herders in the Himalayas; celebrating Burns Night locked in the pack ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea; or swapping yarns with Sir David Attenborough in the Upland Goose Hotel bar in Port Stanley in the Falklands.
I sampled rum and mate with Argentine gauchos; sang at shepherd meets in the Lake District; and, best of all, spent Saturday nights in Geordie land: loud, raucous, pulsing with energy, humour and good-natured profanity.
BOB LANGLEY, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear.
Muted spring
I WAS shocked, but not surprised, at the report about the netting of hedgerows and trees by developers who do not want nesting birds delaying building work (Mail).
A couple of years ago, I stepped in to halt the cutting of the hedge outside my home because a blackbird was nesting in it.
Three weeks ago, it was drastically trimmed. Before the contractors got to work with their hedge trimmers, there was no shortage of birds tweeting. Now it is deserted.
P. WILSON, Chester.