Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May has called for the regulation of the Internet in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in London. Introducing new rules for cyberspace would “deprive the extremists of their safe spaces online” and that technology firms were not currently doing enough.
Speaking outside Downing Street the morning after the van and knife attack that killed seven and wounded dozens, May said that new international agreements should be introduced to regulate the Internet in the light of the London Bridge terror attack.
“We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed – yet that is precisely what the Internet, and the big companies that provide internet-based services provide,” Ms. May said. “We need to work with allied democratic governments to reach international agreements to regulate cyberspace to prevent the spread of extremist and terrorism planning.”
The Prime Minister also said Britain was too tolerant of extremism and that “pluralistic” British values had to be established as superior.
Making British values superior to other values involves religion. In a secular world, where Christianity is increasingly being proscribed or legally silenced, this could have considerable consequences, particularly on those Christian groups or denominations that are not popular.
May warned there is “a new trend in the threat we face” and that while the three recent terror attacks in the UK were not linked by “common networks,” they were “bound together by the single evil ideology of Islamic extremism.”
Ms. May’s speech is thought to be the first time she has publicly called for international cooperation in bringing forward more red tape to cyberspace.
Ms. May’s comments come after the introduction of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, dubbed the “Snooper’s Charter,” which expands the powers of spying agencies and the government over the Internet.
Regulating the Internet to eliminate extremist breeding grounds will have implications for other religions. If your Christian faith is ever considered extreme, which is likely, will your websites and social media be “regulated.”
We must work “while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” John 9:4.