Internet censorship coming to a land near you

Prior restraint of websites already flourishes in America as well as Britain, but a British official wants it to expand to much more stifling levels.

Culture Secretary Andy Burnham told the Daily Telegraph that he wants to negotiate with the Obama administration to devise an Internet censorship system to give each website a rating, much like that which gags the movie industry.

Luckily, Obama won the American election - and not, say, Tommy Thompson. If a Republican had won, I think such a system would be almost a certainty. Then again, censorship didn't exactly diminish during the Clinton years.

How does this proposal differ from similar forms of speech suppression? The video game rating system in the U.S. was said at first to be voluntary, but some states and cities have placed the force of law behind it - thus making it a form of government censorship. Burnham's proposal would be more direct: Under this system, ISP's in both Britain and the United States would be required by law to place ratings on websites. Even sites like YouTube and Facebook would be required to remove "offensive" content within a government-mandated deadline.

Burnham, however, continues to fib about his right-wing motives. "This is not a campaign against free speech," he said. Um, yes it is. It very clearly is. It's interesting that this proposal was announced right when articles were emerging about the fact that more people were getting their news from independent websites. I guess government officials want to keep everyone captive to their propaganda outlets.

Well, guess what? I'm not putting a rating on my site. And if it gets blocked because of it, I will sue.

Someone on DU said it best: "Where did Labour get...All these folks with traumatic toilet training issues?"

(Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologynews/3965051/Internet-sites-could-be-given-cinema-style-age-ratings-Culture-Secretary-says.html)