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400th Post: MP’s actually use phrase “the internet’s dark side”. No, really.

By Dan O'Connor on July 31, 2008

It’s a bad week for the interwebs, kids, first there was the terrible, awful, butt-achingly bad idea that was Cuil (see below for proof, facts, evidence etc etc) and now the assorted tools, reactionaries and soulless party hacks who make up the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the UK Parliament have decided that the internet needs regulating because it is Darth Vader or something.

Apparently they think that all this user generated content (so hip they are!) from the youspaces and facetubes and so on isn’t been properly overseen, and that industry practices for protecting content-generating users is an “unsatisfactory piecemeal approach which lacks consistency and transparency.” And that sites like youtube “must take more responsibility for protecting young people from the “dark side” of digital content.

Well, as they say, fear leads to hate hate leads to fear fear leads to something else which leads to the dark side and that can’t be good at all.

Much like honorable Members’ proposal:

“The report recommends a “proactive review of content” as standard practice for sites hosting user-generated content. The idea would be to introduce technological tools to “quarantine” material which “potentially violates terms and conditions of use until … reviewed by staff”.”

Oh, good grief, Charlie Brown, are these people on drugs? Mentally disabled, perchance? Involved in some sort of elaborate practical joke predicated on the hysterical notion that our democratically elected representatives think it is even remotely possible to review all the world’s user generated content?

I need a martini. Charles Arthur dissects this nonsense in more detail here.

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Dan O'Connor

Dan is responsible for translating social media research into the analytic and conceptual frameworks which underpin the team’s product and service development. He is particularly interested in how social media has changed the ways in which people exchange information within networks, and the impact that these changes have had on traditionally top-down information systems, such as those prevalent within the health, education and NGO sectors, where he leads RMM’s activities.

Dan’s focus upon health and education stems from his background in academia: He has a PhD in History and, as well as being Head of Research at RMM, he is a member of faculty at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. He has published and lectured widely on the ethics of social media use within healthcare systems, and is involved in the application of social media in medical education at Johns Hopkins hospital.

Dan likes cooking, martinis, and irony. Frequently at the same time.

One response to “400th Post: MP’s actually use phrase “the internet’s dark side”. No, really.”

  1. Ben
    Ben
    August 1, 2008 at 17:16 | | Reply

    This is the newly retitled Ministry of Truth, formerly known as “department for culture, media and sport” [sic - lower case title, dudes]

    This post will be removed and placed in quarantine for being too Dark. This action will occur in sequence after we have finished eradicating all the world of people who swear, pornographic material, nudity and bad thoughts. You have been warned, Dan – if that is your real name.

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