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Internet Police: London Signs Warn Against Accessing
"Extremist" Material
Threat of criminal charges for viewing "inappropriate"
material
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Police signs have begun springing up in internet cafes in
London warning users that they could be reported to the police
and face criminal charges if they access "extremist",
"offensive" or "inappropriate" material.
The signs, which state that the owners of the premises are
actively working with the Metropolitan police, have drawn criticism
due to their vagueness and questionable legality.
"Downloading or accessing certain material could constitute
a criminal offence" states the bright pink sign (pictured
below).
Comments concerning the signs on both flickr
and popular blog site Boing
Boing encapsulate the threat such policies pose:
- 'Offensive' according to what criteria? Could that include
political satire or making fun of religions? Also, if it also
lists 'pornographic', what is meant by 'inappropriate'? Another
term so widely interpretable that it's effectively meaningless.
- Not just illegal, please note, but "offensive or inappropriate".
Offensive to whom? Inappropriate to what? These are the sort
of catch-all weasel-words you might expect in China.
- You might as well just have a notice that says: "We
reserve the right to terminate your connection and report
you to the police whenever we feel like it".
- Who's monitoring personal emails for "inappropriate"
material? Is the monitoring covered by RIPA? What's the legal
basis or indeed definition of "inappropriate"? Saddened
and shocked on a weekly basis as we slip/get boiled into a
police state.
- There is an interesting legal angle here: since when, and
on what authority, have the police been given the power to
prevent the accessing of violent or pornographic images other
than occasions where these are criminal - which they often
aren't.
Equally, by what authority do they co-opt, whether by persuasion,
bullying ("You aren't refusing to cooperate with the
police are you Mr Internet Cafe Owner, are you?") Internet
cafes into joining such a self defined and vague scheme?
I think the Internet cafe should be asked by its users for
Data Subject Access records, just to be sure.
- I(don't) like the extreme vagueness of the last sentence:
downloading certain materials could possibly be illegal...
but we're not telling you what certain materials. Breaking
some laws could be against the law! It's possible! Be warned!
- "Extremist" Sounds like your Magna Carta to me.
Or our Bill Of Rights. Good luck living under the (jack)boots.
- gosh - i hope there's a bobby looking over my shoulder at
all times to make sure i don't download anything inappropriate
or offensive. there's a list of that sort of thing isn't there?
because if they stop me before i read anything bad, then i
won't be a criminal will i? i want to be certain.
- or upload, access, transmit or store.... btw, would it be
okay if i brought my own computer in to look at bad stuff?
then it wouldn't be on your system right? then i'd be safe,
wouldn't i?
- I'm glad that Londoners are still free to think what they
want them to think.
We have previously
reported on filtering and blocking of all kinds
of political websites including Prisonplanet.com in public domains
in both the UK and the US. This type of catch all censorship
creep is part of an ongoing agenda to use legitimate concerns
such child pornography to regulate and control the internet
as a whole.
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