
Internet 'Magna Carta' Vote Launched by British Library - SimplyUseless
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33047854
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themeek
So the 'votes' here have nothing to do with the spirit of the Magna Carta so
I'm not certain why the BBC linked them.

The Magna Carta was a concession made by the king of England (he had to make
them, or he would have been killed) to limit his power and to accept that the
person holding the throne was not above the law.

This vote had more to do with regulation of the internet by state mandate and
enforcement. Pretty divergent.

It's disappointing to hear that the report is on more youth voting for safety
over freedom online. The original mythical promise of the internet was a sort
of freedom that of course never came to pass - where free speech could not be
censored, where information was traded without cost and where propaganda would
not and could not lurk.

The past three decades, especially the most recent one, have proven this
wrong.

A managed, regulated and enforced internet is an interesting idea - on that
protect people from dangerous ideas and information - but it's also a scary
and an alien one; it's an idea that Western governments have consistently
criticized other countries for doing.

I myself think that law enforcement is here to protect civil liberties, and
that civil liberties are only to be given up in times of great struggle and
only upon the highest of imperatives.

I know that the West is being significantly challenged to keep its place in
the world, but I don't know that this shift in the winds is one of those great
imperatives.

~~~
whoopdedo
> It's disappointing to hear that the report is on more youth voting for
> safety over freedom online.

Emphasis on "youth". Glancing at it I see very few proposals from anyone over
the age of 16. In their short lives I doubt they have experienced enough to
balance their idealism with pragmatism.

The Magna Carta and other writings that have had similar influence on human
rights are remarkable not only for their idealism but that they were written
by people who understood the reality of the current political environment.
They were able to create positive change that was actionable and not overly
optimistic.

Asking the opinion of 10 and 11-year olds gives you a sense of the next
generation's hopes and fears (or in many cases those of their parents), and
that's not to be dismissed or belittled. But I don't see it being a reliable
guideline for establishing policy.

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z1mm32m4n
I'm not sure that the general public could end up with something as eloquent
and succinctly expressed as John Perry Barlow's A Declaration of the
Independence of Cyberspace[1].

[1]: [https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-
Final.html](https://projects.eff.org/~barlow/Declaration-Final.html)

------
da_n
Subjectively most British adults are frighteningly passive to surveillance and
seem oblivious to losing privacy rights, I would not want British people to
create the Magna Carta of the internet!

Disclaimer, I am British.

~~~
kwhitefoot
Unfortunately the same attitude is quite common everywhere. I agree though
that the UK does seem to have an especially bad case of it. I'm a Brit too but
I've lived almost half my almost 60 years in Norway where the state is just as
keen to introduce things like data retention.

