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At a speech in Kuwait this February British Prime Minister David Cameron stated:
‘The Internet and social media’ is a powerful tool in the hands of citizens, not a means of repression. It belongs to the people who’ve had enough of corruption, of having to make do with what they’re given, of having to settle for second best.” Perhaps this is what bothers him?
No matter, in doing so he echoed some of the sentiments I’ve made here in some earlier posts. The Internet is a great leveller and no part more so than Social Media. Since it’s inception we’ve seen Twitter become much more than a place where in 140 characters one can pitch the latest offer to a gullible audience.
Where once it was common to find tweets proclaiming that you might add 1000 followers a day if you followed the system being promoted by someone with twelve . . . . Tweeps have have now come of age.
According to Mr. Cameron, i seems, it’s O.K. to be an awakened Tweep in Libya, the Sudan, or Iran but I suspect he, and his American counterparts, have a real fear of people waking up in England and over the pond?
Of course the looting and rioting in England had no obvious political cause. Some police officers made a mistake and then all Hell seemed to break loose.
Conspiracy theorists already claim that the resulting riots were instigated by sinister agents provocateur. The real agenda, it is claimed, is to increase the power of government agencies to monitor the Internet, Blackberry Devices, whilst curbing Social Media. The reason, they argue, is that the next time a disaffected public takes to the streets of England it will be because they are pissed off with the rich getting richer, whilst the poor go to the dogs.
Cameron claims criminal gangs are the culprits.
As Tabitha Potts wrote a few days ago “As an ordinary person trying to find out if my home, family and business were safe, Twitter was an invaluable news source for me as a person trying to work out what was happening in my area.”
To my mind we live in dangerous times, and whilst I cannot condone rioting and looting, no matter how caused, I believe curbing access to Social Media such as Twitter ultimately would be a mistake for any politician unwise enough to attempt to do so.
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Retired psychotherapist turned copywriter living on a Mediterranean Beach, just twelve miles north of Rhodes. Currently writing a definitive on the relationship between psychoanalysis and photography. Internationally recognised photographer. |
