Britain’s clamp-down on free-speech on the Internet in recent days has many outraged and up-in-arms!
According to a Los Angeles Times article published yesterday, one young lad was jailed for two weeks after he posted - what could be best-described as a “crude and offensive comment” - on a Facebook page an English Judge viewed as “exceeding the bounds of good taste.”
For good reason, a controversy has been brewing on the subject of freedom of expression and societal mores in the wilds of the Internet and in the advent of the electronic age.
Critics have jumped on the bandwagon to voice their dismay!
“We are seeing a criminalization of speech that wasn’t there before,” fumed Kristy Hughes, a Chief Executive at the London-based nonprofit group Index-on-Censorship.
“It’s troubling,” she noted on the uptake.
The problem arises as a result of a 2003 Communication Law in England that makes it a crime to send messages deemed “grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character” on a Public Electronic Network.
The outdated law derives from an earlier one that was first introduced in the 1930’s which was aimed at protecting telephone operators from abusive callers.
When the law was overhauled in 2003, it was long before social hubs began proliferating on the World Wide Web, and tweeting one’s angst (and odd-ball musings) became the norm of-the-day in our global community.
An alarming number of arrests in recent days – signals to many – that the British Government has become a kind of “speak” (or thought) "police" out to oppress any individual who is inclined to snub their noses at their idea of a polite society and the prevailing social graces they bow down to.
“The recent spat of arrests shows us that the law is having unintended consequences,” lamented Damian Tambini, an expert on media policy at the London School of Economics.
And, it has had a chilling effect on freedom of expression, I dare say!
Across the pond, on U.S. shores, lawyers (and Civil Rights Advocates) would have a field day clogging the courts with lawsuits to defend hapless clients who carelessly (and unwittingly) strayed across the “line”.
After all, the right to free speech is one of the cornerstones that made this Nation great!
In the final analysis, the Brits appear to be a pack of “prudes” stuck in the uptight dark ages.
Oops!
I’d better be careful, or there will be an inspector at my door, eh?
Stay posted for updates!
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