back to article Directgov battles terrorism with report-a-website page

The Home Office has launched a page for people to report online extremism and terror-related content. The section of the Directgov website will link directly to a team within the Association of Chief Police Officers Prevent Delivery Unit for investigation. The site starts by checking people are not trying to report an actual …

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  1. Alien Doctor
    Grenade

    oh well...

    I guess I'd better take down all my RPG websites then

    Grenade with no Mohawk effect? Can't we have a bastard sword dripping blood please?

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can I...

    ...have 12 bottles of bleach please?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Natural extension of the weirdo hotline

    I wonder how long it'll be before this very page is reported to them for reporting them to us?

    Is there a modern day equivalent of the phrase 'reds under the bed'?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    List of objectionable websites

    Australia has their firewall for internet nasties and uncomfortable websites for the Australian Government. However here, HM Government doesn't have such a list so how are they going to stop bomb making instructions appearing in UK residences when they're hosted overseas.

    Or maybe they do have their list of "objectionable" web sites and just haven't told us.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Flame

      You can find...

      ...bomb making instructions in any decent chemistry text book.

      Perhaps they should just ban the teaching of hard science in the UK. Well, they have pretty much hence the rise of homoeopathy etc; (people can't critically think any more). A nation that can't thik through the lies if far more docile and easier to control.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: You can find...

        Sorry, but homeopathy was most popular at its inception in the early 1900s. If you take a snapshot of where we were 100 years ago, and where we are now, I think it's clear that there are far more critical thinkers now, than a century ago. As usual, things go in and out of fashion, the overall trend is to more intelligence though by a long way).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          And this is why...

          ...homoeopathy is available on the NHS? Give me strength.

          Homoeopathy, chiropractic, acupuncture etc are all on the rise as people simply swallow the "data" and "wake-up to the conspiracy" (or whatever the line is today). All the "complimentary" medicines share one thing in common - they all fail to beat a placebo in double-blind trials.

          1. alwarming
            Boffin

            I don't really support homeopathy but..

            And I really do agree that there is a lot of pseudo science fluff going on. (Some of it really funny).

            But from whatever I have read, I can't put all of homeopathy in the same boat.

            Currently, the practice of homeopathy is clasped in an age old unscientific system where stringent scientific studies have not been done to separate voodoo from something that works. Hence no data is available to substantiate the far reaching claims of homeopathy.

            That really irks the "proper" scientists(including me - a science watcher). But instead of trying to see what could be interesting about homeopathy, the mainstream science has rejected all of homeopathy saying that homeopathy is not based on scientific systems. Usually in the world of science, the onus goes back to the proposer to fight back with data. But in case of homeopathy, - the practitioners are part timers

            - or due to a long running history of homeopathy, they earn enough already to not really invest in proving themselves

            - or they believed in homeopathy so much that they couldn't really put it to a test where it might "fail"!!

            However the new generation of homeopath wants to be part of the mainstream. And there are people from the world of mainstream medicine who have seen homeopathy work and are curious. Next 2 decades will see non-voodoo aspects of homeopathy making into the mainstream.

            If still interested read this:

            http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9310601

            "Double-blind and/or randomised placebo-controlled trials of clinical conditions were considered. Our review of 185 trials identified 119 that met the inclusion criteria. 89 had adequate data for meta-analysis, and two sets of trial were used to assess reproducibility. Two reviewers assessed study quality with two scales and extracted data for information on clinical condition, homeopathy type, dilution, "remedy", population, and outcomes. FINDINGS: The combined odds ratio for the 89 studies entered into the main meta-analysis was 2.45 (95% CI 2.05, 2.93) in favour of homeopathy."

            --------

            And if it's all voodoo then Homeopathy will lose whatever little credibility it has. But the next 2 decades will be crucial.

    2. Nick 7

      They do

      They do.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleanfeed_(content_blocking_system)#United_Kingdom

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    I can think of a few sites

    There's this one organisation that has invaded the homes of many people in the UK. It uses fear (and the fear of fear, neat trick) to get people to change their lives and do things they would not have done if they had been in a correct frame of mind. It has forcibly removed people to foreign countries where they face an uncertain future. It has aided in the sale of arms to known terrorists and mass-murderers. It has been caught taking bribes and falsify important financial records. It's called the Labour Party.

    There is no real threat to the UK. Not really.

    You are much more likely to get killed/maimed crossing the road than by any terrorist.

    You are more likely to die in a plane because of a mechanical fault than a terrorist act.

    The last series of terrorist attacks we performed by people using their own ID and making little real effort to hide.

    So STOP giving these bastards in Westminster more and more power over your life! You are at much greater risk from their ineptitude and corruption (which is on record ad nauseum) than you are from some dip-wad in a cave who is in bad need of a shave!

    So, in essence, you would be more than justified in reporting the Labour Party site as it is the Labour Party (and the Tories) who pose the greatest threat to your life and your way of life.

    Fear is the weapon of the terrorist - just ask yourself who is spreading the greatest fear in the public today.

    1. Ted Treen
      Big Brother

      Well put.

      Adam Curtis covered this in 2004 in his excellent series (broadcast surprisingly on BBC2) 'The Power of Nightmares' (appropriately sublitled 'The Rise of the Politics of Fear').

      It's detailed in Wikipedia,

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

      and available to download from at least one Public Domain site in the 'States - unfortunately the ISO9600 image is NTSC - but it's obviously viewable on most computers - Mac or PC.

      Watch it and wake up! Rebellion is the right of any free man - and at times, his duty!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Anyone got a botnet?

    A few thousand reports, all traceable to different and unconnected IP sources, for the "My Little Pony" website would give them something to do and give us all a good laugh as well.

    Anon, because of the helicopters.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Happy

      Followed by...

      Swingeing new powers to come down hard on all those criminally unpatriotic people taking the weewee out of their website...

  7. cannon
    Dead Vulture

    hypocrisy

    so does this include all the news articles drumming for war press release from our just, government.

    does it include the MOD & UK army url's that glorify are nations terrorist activenesses, does it include any relating to Israel wanting to exterminate the Palestinians?

    NO, i didnt think so as we are allowed to be terrorists, because we are just & good terrorists, our white phosphorous, depleted uranium & all other munitions carry a seal of approval from god & fly through the air to the sound of angels!

  8. fifi
    Grenade

    Facebook?

    Judging by the content of many wall posts on various groups, by white british people on Facebook, which are rather "vocal" against muslims, I'd expect facebook to be taken down quite soon.

  9. My Alter Ego
    Grenade

    Can we report UK Gov websites?

    After all, they're doing their best to terrorise us with the threat of Global Terrorism (TM).

    I can imagine conversations in cabinet meetings:

    The people aren't scared enough of terrorism, we're losing control.

    Lets up the threat to severe.

    Do we have any reason to do so?

    We'll use the arse bomber as the reason.

    But that was over 4 weeks ago.

    They won't notice, they'll just be glad that we're keeping them safe. They'll remember this when they vote in May.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      mandatory title

      Someone should make this in to a commercial, or put it on the yoo toobs.

  10. Steve Swann

    Tenatively welcoming....

    I'll very, very tenatively welcome this move. It's not a fascistic high-level approach to censorship by some faceless government group making decisions on our behalf.

    First of all, sites are reported by whomever wants to report one, rather than by an intelligence agency or select committe. That means, in general, that the morality of censorship arises from a broader base of opinion, rather than from a narrow out-of-touch group.

    Secondly, whilst I am very wary of anything ACPO is involved in, it at least appears there is a legal or judicial review of such sites before they are added to a 'ban' list, rather than the more absolutist models we've seen bandied about previously.

    Given that the general zeitgeist indicates that we should have some kind of model for monitoring unwanted activity on the web, I think this is a relatively reasonable approach. At least on the surface of things.

    Mind you, I too would love to know HOW they are going to block websites with the cooperation of every ISP in the country?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Hope was a good thing

      It's not difficult to imagine that some moral panic group or other will abuse this to push the object of their hate and irrational fear off the 'net. It's not a great stretch that hate groups will do the same to their adversaries. The end result is the end of free speech. Mention any opinion contrary to the beliefs and drives of some group --say, you're not entirely happy with the pending outlawing of teletubbies dolls because some group managed to convince the government the teletubbies are evil incarnate (recall the handbag-makes-gay spat?)-- and next you know you get a few hundred complaints lodged against your blog. And some clerk at this here site thinks "that's over 250, enough for a preventive shutdown while we investigate", so your blog gets shutdown, legally, and you get to join the investigation queue, with the vague hope you actually get "investigated" somewhere near christmas next year.

      Is the risk of that happening, however small, worth your tentative welcome?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Jurisdiction

    How are they going to take down servers hosted abroad?

    1. cannon
      Megaphone

      censorship

      they will try to block them, this is the way the internet is heading, they will do this through fear of terrorists, paedophiles & pirates.

      why would the uk government want you to see their troops murdering & torturing ppl or risk sites like wikileaks leaking our governments deceptions & outright criminal activity.

  12. Gerard Krupa
    Big Brother

    Joseph McCarthy is alive and well

    "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men."

    -- Edward R. Murrow on McCarthyism

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LOL

    How ridiculous that is...

    That reminds me the times of witch-hunt where was enough to someone to blame someone else for that someone else burn alive.

    Now the members of the Puritanism movement are extending their claws to all areas like as if it wasn’t enough what they have done till now.

    Soon we might see a new law comming out... anyone that speak against them will deported to Siberia with no return ticket.

  14. Darrell
    Black Helicopters

    You Red Commy B$%£ards

    You should be ashamed of yourselves. It's you lot that have let the commys and Liberals into this country. You'll ruin us all with your wooly thinking

    God bless you Mr Brown for protecting us from free speech and our own minds.

    We cant be trusted you know! we're all binge drinking, obese, car addicts. If I saw an internet page with extremist views on it. I would probably follow them letter for letter and bomb my own bathroom.

    Damn I said bomb!

    Damn I said it again.

    Prepare the gulag, I'm on my way.

    1. Semihere
      FAIL

      Ideological confusion on your part

      I assume when you said 'commiys [sic] and Liberals' you meant Fascists right? Communists stand for equality, Liberals stand for personal freedoms, Fascists stand for control, domination and the removal of the individual's rights and freedoms.

      1. Darrell

        You say potato, I say spud

        Never let the facts get in the way of a good rant. The government doesn't

        ;-)

      2. Darrell

        You say tomato, I say pedant.

        I was actually refering to the nay sayers regarding the "Grass up your favourite terror site" inititive when I referred to commies (or commys, depending if you went to skool or not).

        If it wasn't for the fascists we'd all be friends and eveyone would be happy.

        What a terrible thought!

        btw I take it you did mean 'Commies [sic] and Liberals' and not Commiys

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      At least...

      ... you didn't say Jehova !

  15. Mountford D
    FAIL

    Thanks to the US DoD

    Ah yes, I remember the Jacqui Smith very naive proposal.

    If the government would reflect on history, they would remember that the Internet was born out of the US Department of Defense idea of maintaining communications in the event of hostile actions that could knock out traditional ways of communication. It is therefore designed to be unstoppable but unfortunately, it is also a double-edged sword.

    The only effective way of controlling it would be to dispense with it altogether, ban the import and manufacture of communication equipment, force the country to use government-approved frequencies and terminate all communication channels at the borders. Yep, a return to the good old Soviet Union model and Nazi-style dictatorship. Let's go for it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      go for it?

      "...Yep, a return to the good old Soviet Union model and Nazi-style dictatorship. Let's go for it...."

      Excuse me! But we are in the middle of the new era already!

      Lucky for us UK.gov dislike RUS.gov otherwise we would all have been deported without questions asked to Siberia.... or worst... all gassed up at doors of the pubs by smokers or drown into oblivious during binge drinking group sessions at pubs. :)

  16. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    "Be a Government Informer.

    "...Betray Your Family & Friends. Fabulous Prizes to be Won!"

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's See Now

    http://www.labour.org.uk

    Surely, that is the main culprit and instigator of extremism, the font from which terrorism is succoured.

    The DVLA's advertising is pretty menacing as well:

    http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/

    The hating smoking propaganda that is bilged belligerently from:

    http://www.nhs.uk

    And by the end we shouldn't forget:

    http://www.direct.gov.uk

    itself, another frightening tool of extremism and terror.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Given that

    The Reg regularly posts articles that are pro-terrorist activities (photography, being too tall, having a motorbike, slating millimetre-wave airport scanners etc) I'd start to worry if I were you. AND you have a self-confessed explosives expert on the team. Shortlisted.

  19. heyrick Silver badge
    Grenade

    Can I nominate...

    Under "content designed to stir up hatred against any religious or ethnic group", can I nominate http://www.defense.gov/ ? :-)

    Now, here's an interesting anecdote for you. According to FlagFox, the US "defense" (sic) department website is based in France.

    Well, it turns out www.defense.gov is an alias for www.defense.gov.edgesuite.net which it turn is an alias for a445.b.akamai.net

    Is this an error, or is there a reason why the Defense Dept's website is located in another country? Perhaps so nobody can DMCA it, ho-hum!

    http://geotool.flagfox.net/?ip=81.52.160.48&host=www.defense.gov

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