Online day of action: #CensoredUK Thursday 12th December. Please copy and send the following tweet (and see below for more sample tweets) – and follow us on Twitter.
- Join the #CensoredUK online day of action! Click for details: http://bit.ly/1aUtIsn
For three decades, the UK has been sleepwalking into censorship. It would be inaccurate to say we still are: now we are running at full speed! Most of the censorship measures have been introduced under the banner of “protecting children”; now we are told our children are under threat from the Internet. And yet no reliable evidence of a threat has been produced.
On the contrary, a generation has grown up with Internet access, and teenage pregnancy rates are at their lowest since 1969. Since domestic violence cases peaked at over 1.1m in 1993, they have fallen by over 70%. And these trends don’t just affect the UK. In the United States, rates of sexual violence fell by 64% from 1995 to 2010.
But the evidence doesn’t deter those who want to limit access to the Internet for British citizens. This Thursday, a conference will take place in London, aimed at persuading the government that even more controls are needed – again, to “protect children.”
This Thursday, please use the #CensoredUK hashtag on Twitter, Facebook and other social media to register your opposition to any further moves to censor the Internet: the UK must have the same access to information as citizens in other democratic countries.
Here are some sample tweets you can copy and adapt… or just write your own (and don’t forget the hashtag). Let’s get this M***F**** trending!
- Join the #CensoredUK online day of action! Click for details: http://bit.ly/1aUtIsn
- Is the UK sleepwalking into censorship? http://onforb.es/1gYULrT #CensoredUK
- Cameron: UK will block “extremist” web sites http://bit.ly/1jMkeHv #CensoredUK
- Sky, TalkTalk, BT, Virgin to introduce Internet filters http://bbc.in/J4JNVX #CensoredUK
- China praises UK Internet censorship plans http://bit.ly/1hM5aKj #CensoredUK
- Tim Berners-Lee warns of Internet censorship rise http://bit.ly/19BfjRT #CensoredUK
- UK “porn filter” will also censor political speech http://bit.ly/18B4dfN #CensoredUK
- “Porn filter” will also block conspiracy theories http://bit.ly/IP1b0j #CensoredUK
- British companies are blocking gay websites http://bit.ly/J4Li6l #CensoredUK
- Why is the UK the most censored country in Europe? http://bit.ly/1hMfNwH #CensoredUK
- British Library censors Hamlet as “too violent” http://bbc.in/1e4QMfQ #CensoredUK