‘We’ve seen in the past months a variety of laws aiming to monitor and censor the internet. The UK (aka Oceania to George Orwell readers) is taking a step further by proposing laws allowing the monitoring of emails, phone calls, text messages and even visited websites in real time. These laws are not a long-term project; they are to be brought in “as soon as parliamentary time allows”. As usual, these big-brotherish laws are justified with noble causes such as “fighting terrorists” but the reality is that the right to privacy of the entire population is being revoked. Furthermore, the definition of “terrorist” has been so distorted in recent years that it will probably end up meaning “someone with an opinion about something” in the near future. Here are two articles from the BBC (who always slightly sugar coat these things) on the proposed web monitoring laws.’

‘Two British tourists were barred from entering America after joking on Twitter that they were going to ‘destroy America’ and ‘dig up Marilyn Monroe’.

Leigh Van Bryan, 26, was handcuffed and kept under armed guard in a cell with Mexican drug dealers for 12 hours after landing in Los Angeles with pal Emily Bunting.

The Department of Homeland Security flagged him as a potential threat when he posted an excited tweet to his pals about his forthcoming trip to Hollywood which read: ‘Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America?’

After making their way through passport control at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) last Monday afternoon the pair were detained by armed guards.

Despite telling officials the term ‘destroy’ was British slang for ‘party’, they were held on suspicion of planning to ‘commit crimes’ and had their passports confiscated.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093796/British-tourists-arrested-America-terror-charges-Twitter-jokes.html#ixzz1l1wlXp8b

‘Twitterers have a message: Tomorrow, turn off the tweets.

Users of the social media site are planning a Twitter boycott to protest the company’s new ability to censor tweets on a country-by-country basis.

Twitter announced Thursday that it can now block tweets, as well as individual accounts, from appearing to users in specific countries, and that it may use the feature tocomply with governments’ request to censor information. Before, Twitter could only block tweets and accounts globally.

Some users are calling on fellow Twitterers to silence their tweets on January 28 as a way of expressing their opposition to Twitter’s plan. They are using the hashtag#TwitterBlackoutto organize the boycott, and tweets tagged with the hashtag are rolling in at a clip of about 12 per minute. The tweets span a range of languages, including English, German, Spanish and Arabic.’

‘Has Twitter acted to silence Occupy Wall Street? As a new generation of protesters relies on social media to get their message across, doubts are beginning to surface that the latest tool for popular revolution is firmly in corporate hands.

As OWS protestors gathered at intersections around Wall Street Thursday, their plans to stop traders from ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange was quickly thwarted by a heavy-handed police response.

‘According to CIA Open Source Center (OSC) director Doug Naquin, a team of “vengeful librarians” have the task of studying networks and media outlets that are open to contributions made by individuals across the world, the Associated Press reported.

Social media such as Facebook, Twitter, TV news channels, internet chat rooms, local radio stations, and newspapers are closely monitored, in order to draw a semi-realistic picture of “the mood of a region” at a given time of importance for the US.

Naquin says that any tweet in any given language, regardless of its significance, is closely looked at by analysts. They then cross-reference it with local newspapers or even a “clandestinely interrupted phone conversation.”’

wespeakfortheearth:

TrendsMap Proves Scary Twitter Censorship Of #OccupyWallStreet From Trending Topics

A Trends map of trending twitter hashtags shows #OccupyWallStreet tweets surging in nations around the entire world, except in the United States, while Google Trends shows a corporate media blackout.

JP Morgan has invested $400 million dollars into twitter and in return [See image above].

Yet when the Freedom of Information Act Request is submitted to explain this, we will find the Feds ordered it to be censored due to national security, hence covering up Wall Street bankers commanding twitter to censor the hashtag.

Then, shortly after this article received a lot of attention, it comes back on the world map but still not allowed to be shown on the right hand side of trends.

(via sansastone)

‘In the article entitled The London Riots and How They Will be Used to the Elite’s Advantage, it was stated that the riots would be used to justify a greater control, and surveillance censorship of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Blackberry Messenger. Well the UK government has recently proposed several drastic measures aiming to control the flow of information through social networks, all of which can easily lead to abuse and state censorship such as: The interception and  disclosure of messages by authorities, the deletion of pro-social unrest messages, the banning of suspected rioters from social networks and even the complete shut down of social networks during periods of unrest.

These measures are being discussed despite studies claiming that social media activities spiked AFTER major riot events (and not before), which is, after all, a normal phenomena (see this analysis of Tweeter traffic during the riots).

Here’s an article from The Guardian describing the several measures considered by David Cameron’s government.’