Regulating the interwebs
A conference in the UK has had the bright idea that blogs should be self-regulated with a similar code to the UK press. Is it just me or does that idea sound like it will fail before it starts?
The idea is that victims of bad reporting would have some sort of redress.
Um, no they wouldn’t. They would only have as much as they have now using the existing libel and data protection laws. This voluntary code would go nowhere unless it had teeth. And why just blogs?
For me the craziest part of this is the “voluntary” aspect. IE. those who want to be fair and follow this ideal code would sign up but those who this is meant to control, the “bad guys” wouldn’t. It’s like gun laws, the bad guys don’t want or need licenses so you end up treating the good guys like criminals.
So what is this really? Old media jealousy or politicians wanting to be seen to be doing something?
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