Quando os rebeldes no Norte de África usam o twitter e o face book como uma arma decisiva para apear regimes totalitários e caducos, as democracias regozijam-se e aplaudem. Quando os mesmos meios são utilizados para mobilizar hostes em fúria e descontrolar os sistemas de defesa interna nos países democráticos, muita gente assustada reclama medidas que anulem as transmissões rebeldes.
Como? Pois só calando tais meios, o mesmo é dizer, acabar com eles.
Impensável? Também me parece. Impensável é também que haja muita gente que, em democracia, pense assim.
LONDON — After four nights of lawlessness that has upended British society and seen 1,200 alleged looters and arsonists swept off the streets, the government is also targeting a digital culprit: social media.
Governments from China to the authoritarian regimes challenged by the Arab Spring have sought to control social networking sites, fearing their power to connect and organize dissidents hungry for democracy. But Britain is weighing an unprecedented move to intervene in the personal communication of its citizens after concluding just the opposite: that social media, including BlackBerry Messenger and Twitter, are undermining its vibrant democracy.
Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament that the government is looking at whether there should be limits on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook if they are being used to spread disorder. (Aug. 10)
The plan touched off an immediate firestorm in Britain’s thriving social media community, igniting charges of an assault on freedom of speech. Prime Minister David Cameron, however, made clear that he felt the greater threat was allowing violent speech to circulate.
“Everyone watching these horrific actions will be struck by how they were organized via social media,” Cameron said in an emergency session of Parliament on Thursday, during which he announced that officials were working with the intelligence services and police to look at how and whether to “stop people communicating via these Web sites and services when we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality.”
Cameron said: “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.”
Police in Britain have been monitoring social networking sites — and pouncing. Authorities in England and Scotland, for instance, have arrested more than a dozen youths on suspicion of using the Internet and text messages to incite unrest. In Greater Manchester, hit hard by rioting Tuesday night, the police fought fire with fire, issuing this warning from an official police Twitter account: “If you have been using social networking sites to incite disorder, expect us to come knocking on your door very soon.”
The Twitter universe in Britain was among the first to respond to Cameron’s announcement, with irate comments flooding the nation’s digital space. Spoofing Sky News — Fox News’s sister network in Britain — one Twitter user employed classic British humor as political statement, sending out a fake bulletin: “Breaking: Sky News understands David Cameron has been in talks with the Chinese government to share web-filter technologies.”
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