News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban. Parent comment

Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by lwhi on Friday August 12, 2011 @04:39AM (#2876473)
Use of rubber bullets was authorised after the police finally got their act together. I don't think it was a worthy desire to avoid escalation that prevented their use earlier on .. more lack of organisation.

The main question is, how will our government discover whether a citizen is communicating about a forbidden subject? I suppose all communication will need to be explicitly monitored. This is another step closer towards distopia.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by drieddust on Friday August 12, 2011 @09:33AM (#2877156)
Somebody on bbc question hour was suggesting that police inaction was on purpose.They wanted this to escalate and use this violence as an excuse to make draconian laws.Cameron's action actually agrees with the prediction.

I do not want to believe in conspiracy theories but seriously does it take 3 days to decide using baton round/rubber bullets.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by andylei on Friday August 12, 2011 @09:54AM (#2877219)
if the explanations are either incompetence or malevolence, i'll usually believe incompetence
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by drieddust on Friday August 12, 2011 @10:07AM (#2877272)
I totally agree with you but instead of giving Police better tools they want to monitor social media which is just absurd and can be used against their political enemies which does suggest malice.

I fail to understand how social media monitoring will prevent riots next time if Police chooses to be an spectator.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by MrScruff on Friday August 12, 2011 @05:42AM (#2876606)
Use of rubber bullets was authorised after the police finally got their act together. I don't think it was a worthy desire to avoid escalation that prevented their use earlier on .. more lack of organisation.

Do you have a source for that? Everything I've read suggested the police were only considering rubber bullets or water cannons as a last resort.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:In wake of riots, British PM proposes social media ban by ollysb on Friday August 12, 2011 @07:01AM (#2876784)
From http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/blog/2011/aug/11/uk-riots-day-f...

...Godwin and his team came very close to issuing the order for firearms teams to use plastic bullets.

At that point the Met's officers were "stretched to an extent never seen before," deputy assistant commissioner Steven Kavanagh said. "We did absolutely consider it through the night," Kavanagh said. "But these were very fast moving mobile groups and by the time we got baton rounds there this groups would have moved away."

[ Parent | on HN ]