Internet Holiday, Censorship and Resposibility.

I am a dinosaur of the internet. I was there when it was still a world of hobbyists, undiscovered by advertisers or pornographers. I was in college, studying 'media', we were the only course allowed the passwords to access this exciting, yet slow moving, world of text and low resolution images. Time in this world was strictly metered, and with the limitations of the technology, this meant that most of your visit would have been spent in the online equivalent of an abandoned bus station, waiting for a clapped out Number 7 to take you to the next destination.

I missed the really early days, the days of usenets and newsgroups, purely by virtue of not having the requisite nerdiness to pursue these incomprehensible exchanges. My brother did though, bringing back dispatches from this unusual world and displaying them with a joy I could just about understand. So, computers can 'talk' down phone lines. How could we know how earth shattering that would become?

Now I immerse myself almost totally in the online world. It is where I do most of my work, how I communicate with most of my friends and where I get virtually all of my news. My mobile phone is no longer a phone, more a handheld 'net portal. I know email address's in the way I used to know phone numbers.

I guess that's why I decided to take last week off. Entirely. No Twitter, Email, no News... Oh god... No News... How would I cope with no news and No Twitter... What would happen if I thought of some piece of disposable wit about a political decision? Who would I tell? My girlfriend doesn't actually find me that funny... On the 'net I can usually get a few 'LOL' messages if I fire a good one... Where would I get that pathetic little ego massage that comes with the magic words "... Has retweeted you"

As it was it turned out to be no big deal. Not like an alcoholic saying that they will take a 'month off to prove they don't have a problem' it was more like stopping watching a particular TV show. You find something else to do. You fill the time. You notice, but that's all... I didn't miss it. I read a lot of books, I went out to dinner with my girlfriend (who, now and again, reads this thing - Hello babe!) I hardly thought about Right V Left, or which SPAD had set what stupid thing on Twitter or any of that...

So now I'm back... And it seems I've just missed a Twitter Blackout... Well... I technically took part in it, without really having any intention to do so, or any knowlege of the background. Seems Twitter may censor certain words in certain territories, a plan that certainly fails to acknowledge the creativity of those with 'hidden' messages. Codes and Cyphers stretch back thousands of years, they are a technology as old as the written word.

I have difficulty seeing how they would implement such a scheme, but no difficulty seeing why. After last year, with the Arab Spring, the U.K 'Riots' and subsequent clean-up, the Superinjunction fiasco amongst other events, the pressure on Twitter to take some responsibility for the 'content' must be immense.

Should it be though? Are Nokia responsible for what I blog? How about Apple? I might want to edit this later... Perhaps it's Vodafone's responsibilty... Or even my electric company?
No... It's my fault... Not the fault of those who enable. In the same way that Google are no more at fault for piracy than the street map that directs you to the Market that sells pirate DVDs. The fault, or more precisely the responsibility lies with the originator of the 'content'

Of course I believe that Twitter should not filter content based on region, then again, neither should telephone or Text services... (witness the amazing recent campaign in Pakistan to forbid various words from SMS use... A list which made it round Twitter in about 5 seconds and introduced me to a lot of novel curses, both in Urdu and in English)

That said, the originator should know that free speech always has a price. It may be government harrassment if you disagree with them, or social alienation if you contravene the 'norms'. Every idea worth espousing comes up against some resistance. To be truly brave a person has to put their name behind their opinion.

I, for one, have hid behind the Twitter Hive Mind to voice opinions that I would have felt uncomfortable about otherwise, to engage in debates that I would otherwise excuse myself from either to avoid personal attack (abortion and Religion being the major points that just seem to attract the internet nutters to your door) or to engage in some Spartacus style Streisand-ing and add my voice to a (sometimes illegal) groundswell or meme.

Is it wrong for Twitter itself to want to excuse itself from becoming the mouthpiece for any and all 'anonymous' forces?

It's a difficult question. I love free speech, I'm even able to divorce the concept from the content when some idiot uses it to justify their small minded 'hate Speech' or nonsensical religious bullying. I do worry for it though... I worry that enough people will use it as a shield that it will take on the same perceived tarnish as those once beautiful words 'Human Rights'

Maybe... maybe all of that...
but maybe I've just been reading too much Christopher Hitchens and I need to get myself back on the newstrain... pronto...

Opinion: Glitter Not on Twitter...

Oh all bow down and praise to the great God, Twitter... Yet again... The Hive Mind has provided...
Right... I was genuinely >< that close to doing a ranty style blog about the 'New' (to me) 'Wrestler Style' introductions to Snooker matches on the television. I soon realised a few things, A) I don't actually care about Snooker enough to raise that much ire and B) This could have been going on for years by now, and since I rarely watch snooker, you could all be battle hardened to it (despite it's near Criminal inappropriateness)

So I begged Twitter for some News... And unlike all other totems of worship she hath provided.

A few days ago, a Twitter account was set up, purporting to be the 'Official Garry Glitter' account. It announced a comeback tour and hinted at 'New Material'. This was of course shocking enough to nearly bring Twitter to it's knees, collapse the internet and perhaps send the world spinning of it's axis to plunge, Space 1999 style, into the depths of the cosmos.

Now, I am proud to say I called spoof immediately (Have to boast about that, as I was taken in by the fake Wendi Deng, and thought the new Nadine Dorries account was a spoof... Although I still believe I am half correct on that and she is a 'Spoof Human')

Today it has been revealed that I was right... Or at least that the account is not real. However instead of saying it's a 'spoof' they are using the word 'social experiment', releasing a statement explaining their actions.

Now there were a few 'tells'. The 'new Material' and Tour stood out. It just didn't wash... When convicted child molesters release 'new materiall they tend to do it in less open ways. Honestly, just look on youtube for Johnathon King's more recent output to see 'how it is done' by such a creature... Oh and prepare to have your jaw dropped through the Earth's crust.

So yeah... A spoof account, albeit linked to a campaign for online safety... So far, so admirable... I do have one reservation, the use of the word 'Experiment'. Maybe this will come out later, but I don't see from the information revealed so far what the experiment actually is.

For me the word 'experiment' has quite a specific meaning, not obviated by the preceeding word 'social'. An experiment 'measures' something, there are controls in place. Maybe he plans a statistical breakdown of supportive/negative tweets. But even then there is nothing to contrast it against.

If I was less forgiving I would call it a specialised 'trolling' campaign, as the public reaction was never in question. The best part of people were always going to be understandably outraged, whilst some people who want to be considered 'Dangerously alternative' (or perhaps also clocked him as a spoof) were 'Supportive'... Maybe some of them just really liked Glam Rock.

So hats off to him for an audacious attempt to raise public awareness of online predators, even if the reveal seemed a bit shrill and sanctimonious. (Having a go at 'edgy' jokes made about your 'spoof' account... Please...)

But until I see some results, results that actually say something, I will not accept the word 'experiment'. It was a campaign to raise awareness of an issue, predetermined by it's creator, it was not an attempt to find out anything new about human behaviour.

(Oh and to clarify for anyone who thinks that just because I am questioning the 'experimental' aspect of this campaign I am somehow pro-Glitter. He's fucking lower than the germs in a syphilitic rat... And his music was always shit.)

Nice Dream... if PMQs saw #PMQs

Ok... I accept it... I'm pretty much pathological about Twitter, (I've even found myself using #hashtags in text messages) so this has quickly become a Blog about 'Stuff on Twitter'

Today's big 'stuff on Twitter' is two-fold.
#Leveson has gone all light hearted... Sort of a Levity-son if you like that kind of strangled, kicked and beaten into shape pun. While they do their best impersonation of the 'And Finally' bit of a news broadcast it leaves me to Gawp at the Twitter 'Comedy Gold-a-thon' that is the #PMQs hashtag.

I've tried watching the live broadcast along with the #PMQs 'commentary'. Unfortunately seeing a large number of grey looking, be-suited twonks, 'Harrumphing' whenever they deem their side to have scored a point is far less interesting than reading all the incredulous, snarky and sometimes hilariously insulting comments hurled at those same Twonks.

Maybe it's because this is the 'spectacle' bit of politics that makes it so unappealing. it seems to be the let-off-steam 'naked wrestle' the leaders have to go through before swanning off to brief the press about how they: "Utterly disagree with each other, despite the fact they both plan to do the same thing, although we had the idea first... Honest"

Now imagine how much better this spectacle would be if they could see the #PMQs Twitter feed... On a huge screen... So big they have to bow to the all knowing hive-mind GOD that is Twitter...

Well... Maybe I went overboard a bit there, but it would be nice for them to be able to see all the Labour supporters Tweeting:
"For God's sake Ed, stop doing that thing with your face, you look like a cartoon octopus posessed by the Ghost of Gordon Brown"
For Cameron to see:
"Lay off the Smug... Really... lay off the smug. You look like a Vacuum salesman who has just discovered the auto-erotic joy of the suction hose"
For Clegg to see:
".........."

Ok, fair enough... Nobody says anything about Nick Clegg anymore, funny or otherwise.

But there could be a genuine benefit to this idea (after you'd manage to find a filter that would keep out all the 'Pricks' 'Bellends' 'Wankers' etc)

A lot of decisions are passed through 'Focus groups'. Small bands of 'representative' people supposed to stand for all of us. But with currnt technology we have a massive Hive Mind, just waiting to be consulted like an all seeing oracle.

Imagine if Gove had jurned to the Twitter Deity and asked "Erm, should we give the Queen a Massive Yacht as a present?"
The Hive mind could have then immediately answered: "Fuck off, she can try and win one through a rigged competition like everyone else"

Then Cam could dash in and bluster. "Not with your money... Honestly... We'll get it sponsored... It will be the Royal and Compare The Market.com Yacht and floating museum of pictures of Meekats that have suddenly lost all their 'cute' appeal and are now seen by most as vermin to be stamped on"
...which is kind of what happened in real life anyway... Although we didn't get to see it on #PMQs

Opinion: Go #TeamBozier!

Last night, the E-campaign chap for the Labour party became the 'Ex' E-Campaign chap for the Labour party with the view that he will probably be switching to the Conservative Party... although I'm sure he'll be angling to something that swings a bit more weight than 'E-Campaign' chap...

I heard about this on Twitter, which is unsurprising as it's how I get most of my news. What was surprising was that, for some time it existed ONLY on Twitter. The announcement was on Twitter, the reaction was on Twitter, and when news and Bloggers started to report it, the crux of the story was the Response on Twitter. If you weren't on Twitter last night, it Literally hadn't happened.

Now, whether you agree with his principals in question, you have to accept that he was correct to follow them to the party that he feels best represents them... That's a good thing. In fact, it's kind of what democracy is... It's best for everyone, Conservatives have a convert and Labour lose someone who doesn't really believe in the parties direction and probably wouldn't be putting their heart into the job. Maybe both parties would be better if they got rid of a few 'career coasters'.

Despite this fairly simple story, Twitter went alight. Ludicrous Pitchforks from some of the 'Left' outstanding exaggeration from some on the 'Right'. He was either Utterly non-existant, or the final pin holding Ed Miliband's leadership together, depending on who you read. It didn't help that the first 'Article' on the subject (In something called 'Kernel') looked exactly like a spoof, possibly written by Charlie Brooker...

I spent some fun hours equating the hype to the teenage tribalism that overcomes Twitter nearly every day. #TeamBieber or #LittleMonsters or whatever. Political debate turms into mere 'Name Trending' and the side that gets the most Retweets can declare themselves the arbitrary winner and go to bed happy.

I don't know what fallout this will have, maybe none, maybe lots. Suffice to say there is really no political dimension to the story at all. He was a Labour chap who frequently had to dismiss claims he really wasn't, and then decided he really, REALLY wasn't... On Twitter.

It was Twitter itself that lifted this decision onto the News Platter, subsequently turning him into one of those magnets for that glorious Twitter venting that is oh-so-satisfying...

There are rumours that all of this is a publicity ruse to assist in gaining publicity for a business he's starting up. If so, good for him... He's played the system well. He knew exactly what to say, and when to say it... (Sunday night... If he'd started it today it would have beenburied in Leveson and Yacht talk amongst others).

Really everybody wins here.
Conservatives get a convert, who looks the part (i.e. Like a guy from the Apprentice) and knows how to work the system.

Labour have lost someone who doesn't really agree with them anyway and who looked custom designed to irk the Left.

The public have had a chance to get all worked up and frothy (on both sides of the political sphere), despite there being very little to actually say on the matter. Jokes have been made, exaggerations exchanged, challeneges of 'who cares the least/most' even some (Less amusing) 'Threats' flew from side to side.

It's a catharsis, like a mini election with no outcome, allowing Twitter folks (Like me) to feel they are participating in politics without really having to do fuck all.

... And Luke Bozier? Well whatever happens he will come out of this more important and better known than he went in...