14 DAY TRIAL // A very violent and definitive plan of action was laid off by British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith: "Where there is illegal material in the Net, I want it removed," she said in the keynote speech at a conference on radicalization and political violence, the Associated Press reports.
However, her plan is not looking very easily to be put into practice because that could lead to a huge list of lawsuits for censorship. Policing the Internet is exactly what has drawn the critiques of many freedom of speech evangelists. This could prove to be a rather interesting moral dilemma, come to think of it: should you agree with the government to block the sites of Islamist ideologues that use the Internet for recruiting, or should you agree with the Human Rights' movement and let the recruits spread havoc and, perhaps, even death?
The parallel she has made between extremism, child pornography and the campaigns against pedophiles was in my opinion a bit out there: "If we are ready and willing to take action to stop the grooming of vulnerable young people on social-networking sites, then I believe we should also take action against those who groom vulnerable people for the purposes of violent extremism," as she was quoted by the AP. That's going back to the Stone Age as far as Internet actions go, with hacking and slashing all the way.
No additional details were provided as to who would do the removing of the extremist content, or how that would be done, but as long as she sees it as being possible, I say let her try. It will no longer be visible after she's done with it, but that won't be because it isn't there, but because it will have moved deeper underground. It's basically a lose-lose situation if that's the way it's going to be, in full force.