UK continues its attack on privacy and social networks

May 28, 2015 09:54 GMT  ·  By
UK wants to make it possible for MI5 and MI6 to view private social media traffic
   UK wants to make it possible for MI5 and MI6 to view private social media traffic

The British Government is not giving up on its assault on social media networks, bringing forward the new Investigatory Powers Bill, as The Telegraph reports.

This new UK law will allow MI5, MI6, and GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters) to inquire Internet providers for traffic details and messages exchanged via services like Facebook, Google, Snapchat, WhatsApp, and other similar online communication tools.

The inquiries can be made on suspicion of terrorism and other serious crimes, but they can also be initiated by other institutions with the goal of checking credentials for all employees working directly with children.

Proposed by British Conservatives, the Investigatory Powers Bill is also backed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, and also aims to force Internet providers to record and then store individual user activity for as long as a year.

Warrants for sifting through this data will be issued by the British Home Secretary, and if everything goes as in the US, where people can be detained “as terrorists” in airports and banned from boarding a plane just for taking a jab at TSA agents, then UK citizens will be in for a rude surprise when they'll have their online activity reviewed for flimsy reasons.

The UK has a history in anti-privacy laws

The bill is hauntingly similar to some of the Patriot Act constituent sections and will probably be explained and justified with terrorism and pedophile fear mongering, just like any other previous privacy-intrusive law.

The situation is looking bleaker for the rights of UK citizens, just days after information leaked about another law intended to automatically block all adult content on Internet-connected devices across the UK.

Rumor also has it that the EU Council will counter this possible UK bill by a new regulation that prevents Internet providers from blocking access to any kind of content, but don't put your hopes in Europe, since only last year a EU directive that required ISPs to log user traffic was thrown out at the last moment by the European Court of Justice.