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Terrorism, web sites, games and privacy (anonymity)

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kat:


The UK Gov have launched a new web site that lets citizens  report suspicious activities on the Internet, all in the name of stopping the boogeyman of the moment, "terrorism" (actually 'terrorist', 'extremist' and 'hate' material online). Under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 (amendments to Terrorism Act 2000?) it's an offense to, amongst other things, "indirectly encourage the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism". This then begs the question, how do games like Modern Warfare, Rainbow Six, and a million other 'US vs Evil terrorist' games fit into that? Not only are they indirectly 'promoting' terrorism, but it's something that's positively profitable! Then there's the web sites... oh no and the communities, forums harbouring brainwashed acolytes ready to risk it all... online, PvP. All those subversive gamers  talking about weapons and blowing things up, that can't be good.

OK, I'm being facetious for the sake of making a point about how open ended, far reaching and broad spectrum this all is. For instance, I was watching Myth Busters clips the other day, the episode when the guys experimented with thermite (off-topic: interesting that Google spell checker doesn't know that word.. yeah right! .Ed), they actually show, or at least 'tell', viewers how the stuff is made - aluminium and iron oxides. Under the broad sweeping criteria afforded this new initiative for reporting 'terrorist' material online, that video, and all the related videos that crop up as a results of it, are illegal. And so too, believe it or not, would be web site related to games like Modern Warfare; remember all that hoo haa about the airport 'terrorist' scene? You guessed it, because it indirectly promotes and/or glorifies acts of terrorism it's technically illegal to have clips of it online. Thank god for the First Amendment.. oh wait, we don't have that in the UK.

It would seem 'they' are coming for your internetz! (more on this to come).


Quick links to interesting posts (latest at top)

(Some posts have be moved to their own dedicated topic for better discussion. Update booksmarks as needed. kat)

- "Muslim blood is cheap" or "why can't we play as terrorists, part II"
- "Just shoot the Aayrabs" or "why can't we play as terrorists"
- Apple, Court Orders, the FCC and access to iPhone devices
- Twitters "Ministry of Truth" Trust & Safety Council
- Free Speech & Expectations of Privacy on Social Media
- Draft Investigatory Powers Bill
- Paris terrorists (may have) used PlayStation 4's
- Privacy in the aftermath of Paris (2015)
- Our Privacy isn't click-bait
- Cyber Violence Against Women and Girls - A World-Wide Wake-Up Call
- Stazi watching Facebook?!
- Social Platforms making it difficult to prosecute Terrorists
- FCC Open Commission Meeting (Feb 2015)
- President Obama's Plan for a Free and Open Internet
- Apple/Google discuss Government surveillance plans
- Charlie Hebdo, terrorism and freedom of speech
- Trolls & Online Abuse laws (UK)
- GCHQ identified Kinect as possible snooping tool
- Terrorists and Spies ruining our games!
- FBI can secretly turn on laptop cameras
- How the Internet is now "weaponised"
- Kinect can see through clothing
- NSA tracks Google ads to find Tor users
- US & UK crack secure Internet encryption (SSL et-al)
- The FCC & Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act
- Google Street View images being used to 'find' tax dodgers
- Is 'gamification' worth the intrusion
- Executive Order -- Improving Critical Infrastructure Cyber-security
- Internet Black-boxes in the UK
- Microsoft Patent allows Kinect to watch you without you knowing
- (UK) Defamation Bill to force websites to identify trolls
- Sims creator next venture to 'gamify' your life
- Lying on the Internet could land you in jail?!
- Joint Committee on the Draft Defamation Bill - First Report
- Could Lying on Facebook, Checking Out NSFW Stuff Land You in Jail?
- Homeland Security invokes Patriot Act on Assange

ratty redemption [RIP]:
@ kat, interesting and I've often thought the same about science programs and modern warfare type games possibly getting red flagged.

kat:
Bit of a bump but I thought I'd post this here as it's related to the topic of web site being taken down due to terrorist content being 'on a server'. Burst.net pulled an entire server that hosted 73,000 blogs for the sake of being told by the FBI that one of those was an al-Qaeda website (it's not entirely clear if it was an entire site dedicated to the group or just 'some material'. Apparently someone at the company made an 'error' in stopped the service which then disabled all material being hosted and not just the bad stuff. Needless to say a lot of people are not happy about it, least of all those that lost their blogs because of one site.

ratty redemption [RIP]:
wow, that sucks. also aren't these service providers trained in the event that actual illegal material is found on one of their servers?

kat:
Technically yes, there is a supposed to be an industry wide, albeit voluntary, procedure and protocol in place that usually it revolves around something called "DMCA take-down request". For example a musician finding their music being distributed without permission can send in a take down request on said files. The Host/ISP is then obliged to remove the content and it's up to the distributed to then prove they had permission in order to get the files back up.

In this instance, because it was something to do with 'terrorism' it seems someone at Burst panicked and shut the server down without notice. They do generally have the authority to do that if it's in their T&C, but it's usually invoked where their client was doing something that was putting the server itself at risk (the current legislation doesn't hold host/ISP/service providers liable for the *contents* of their services - it's stops them being arbitrarily sued). Because this was a client of a client, it's certainly questionable but most certainly not the right way to have gone about solving this - technically all they had to do was delete the offending blogs and folder contents and jobs done.

Initially the iNet was full of speculation about this being another heavy handed offensive by the Record/Movie industry, although it wasn't, it does kind of set a precedent where ISPs may just shut down services at the behest of 'official' communications, which is obviously somewhat troubling; it's not that far a stretch of the imagination to think of companies like Activision/EA sending out take down requests on mod sites because they're 'interfering' with revenue generation from Down loadable Content (DLC).

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