Vivat Libertas

Probably not - on my good days I verge on anarchy and on my bad days I stop verging - but at least my title got some attention. Anyway, as you may or may not know, the censorship of social media scares the crap out of me. Freedom of communication is a human right , and we already have enough repression in the world as it is without governments deciding to crack down on it some more. In this day and age, social networking is more than just important - it's a part of life. Facebook helps one keep in touch with one's friends and acquaintances, while Twitter is a great (and addictive) way to keep up with all of one's favourite causes. Youtube's great for sharing things, BBM is a way of life for some people...I could go on, but I won't. Some people might like to butt in right now and say that social networking is a Bad Thing. Yes, with the capitals as well. They might smirk at the recent sentencing of two men or deplore the moral collapse of society when they see ...

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 dow...