Take My Word For It

So Conservative MP Louise Mensch has called for temporary shutdowns of Twitter and Facebook to stop panic spreading. According to her Twitter, she would only support "one or two hours shutdown at the height of the crisis as an interrupt, if police needed it." I don't in any way support her or her proposals, as they'd be at best unnecessary (one or two hours would stop panic spreading? Really?) and at worst may violate human rights, as it blocks certain kinds of communication. Still, people are making too much news about it - it's turned from "oh hey, maybe we should shut it down at certain times IF the police agree and IF it would make the situation better" to "Evil Conservative wants to shut down teh Facebook and Twitter!!!! OH NOEZ!!!!!!!!!!11!!1". This is probably not helped by the media and people's desire for a black-and-white narrative instead of the murky, muddy shades in real life.

This is more of a plea for people to calm down about it, or at least check the facts. I still don't agree with her, but neither do I agree with the internet hysteria going on right now.