An English PEN commentary on the idea that social media could be temporarily shut down in response to the #UKriots. We wrote lots of tweets on the issue, collected here.
Following the appalling riots throught the UK over the past week, some politicians have suggested that social media services like Twitter and Blackberry Messenger, which are known to have been used by the rioters, could be blocked or temporarily shut down in moments of crisis.
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UK riots: tougher powers could curb Twitter
In an emergency Commons statement, the Prime Minister said that extended police powers would be considered, such as the ability to demand that suspected criminals remove face masks.
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Among those calling for restrictions were the parliamentarian and novelist Louise Mensch MP, a member of the House of Commons CMS Committee.
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Twitter regularly down for maintenance, and if in a major national emergency police think Twitter and FB should take an hour off? So be it |
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and as to ‘do we shut down phone networks too” RIM could usefully have done “maintenance” on BBM messages as well. |
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If short, necessary and only used in an emergency, so what. We’d all survive if Twitter shut down for a short while during major riots. |
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This form of intervention has serious consequences, which we encounter every day through our international campaigns for
Writers in Prison. So we posted a few tweets in response.
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Twitter seems appropriate place to respond to @LouiseMensch and Cameron calls for social media blackouts… |
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1. “Maintence” routinely given as excuse for China/dictatorship censorship. To lie in this way at request of police would be appalling. |
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2. Twitter is a medium, not a message. All positive responses to #UKriots also came from social media. Baby + Bathwater. @LouiseMensch |
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3. Do we censor after 1, 10 or 100 misuses of social media? Slippery slope into police censoring whenever they feel like it. @LouiseMensch |
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4. Censorship, when it does occur, must only come via judge’s court order, not police operational decision makers. @LouiseMensch |
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5. Impossible to make happen. No Twitter/BBM? Use FB. No FB? use Google+. No Internet? Use SMS! @LouiseMensch |
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When an organisation such as PEN takes a strong liberal line on free speech, there are always legitimate concerns. We believe it is inconsistent to argue for free expression without also using that free expression ourselves to condemn destructive behaviour (the writer Kenan Malik
is very good on this issue).
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That said, free speech advocates like @englishpen have moral obligation to challenge those who abuse free speech rights… |
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… Anyone who believes in free speech must also condemn those who spread lies or incite violence. @LouiseMensch … |
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…Our 63 year old PEN charter affirms obligation to condemn lies and incitement: http://bit.ly/pmn6As @LousieMensch |
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Our tweets elicited a few pertinent additions from our 4,240 loyal twitter followers.
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Dear @LouiseMensch some people use words irresponsibly. Does that mean governments should "turn off" words for an hour or two? @englishpen |
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@englishpen @LouiseMensch Imagine Twitter GENUINELY down for maintenance/failwhale in troubled time. Ppl wld assume censorship, and then…? |
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.@LouiseMensch er, but Twitter and FB were also best sources *by far* in where was safe. Fearmongers were quickly reigned in @englishpen |
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. @LouiseMensch "trad media" more interested in getting scary shots than actually providing useful info in timely way @englishpen |
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RT @teadevotee: @LouiseMensch if govts had shut down social media during Arab spring we wd call it authoritarian repression. Why different here?@englishpen |
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From the point of view of the advocacy work we do, this practical consideration is very important. The gleeful way in which Iran and China have jumped on the #UKriots issue is a preview of the sanctimonius accusations of hypocrisy that PEN will have to negotiate, next time we campaign against abuses of free expression in those countries.
Don’t know if you’ve seen this, Rob China has worse riots than uk ones every week Apparently