By BJ Bjornson
Well, that didn�t take too long.
The prime minister promised he would do "whatever it takes" to restore order to the streets as he set out a range of measures aimed at helping businesses and homeowners affected by the riots.
They included:
To look at whether it would be right to stop people communicating via social media when "we know they are plotting violence, disorder and criminality"
It wasn�t all that long ago that everyone was lauding these social networks as tools of democracy when they allowed the �disorder� that gave rise to the �Arab Spring�, even spurring calls for the West to set up ways to circumvent governments trying to shut the networks down as the Egyptian administration attempted early on.
More astute observers noted that trusting any government to not leave themselves a backdoor to shut down actions that conflicted with their own interests would be foolish, and the UK just showed us the truth of that concern. Those same tools in the hands of people participating in disorder in the West mean they aren�t �tools of democracy� anymore.
The powerful, as a group, are never keen on giving the powerless the tools they need to organize against them. Against competing powerful interests? Sure, just not against themselves, which is why you�re soon likely to see the tools for more effectively shutting down popular social networks coming to a government near you in the very near future. Remember, it�s only bad when the other guy does it.
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