The internet community has derided proposals by Andy Burnham, the culture secretary, to introduce age ratings for websites – with one blogger “kidnapping” the MP’s online identity in protest.
Mike Butcher, who blogs about technology and start-up businesses at Techcrunch, has claimed the username “andyburnham” at Twitter, the short-form blogging service, in an attempt to educate him about some “essential truths” of the internet.
Mr Butcher said Mr Burnham’s interview with the Sunday Telegraph this weekend “betrayed the simple fact that he knows nothing at all about the internet”. He argued that the sheer volume of websites, the difficulty in regulating content hosted abroad and the internet’s constantly changing nature makes it near-impossible to impose a cinema-style rating system, which Mr Burnham said was one option under consideration in his oft-repeated ambition to apply traditional media’s standards of decency to the web.
Mr Butcher will retain Mr Burnham’s Twitter account “until such time as he’s prepared to sit down and listen to some real feedback about his ideas”.
“I do intend to hand it back to him,” Mr Butcher told the FT – but only after setting up the Twitter account to follow other users “who know how the internet works, hoping he will get the kind of feedback that makes his job easier and preserves that go-getter internet culture”.
The move follows a long tradition of hijacking domain names and blogs for commercial gain or to make a political point, but Mr Butcher says Twitter can be a valuable way for MPs to listen to their constituents.
Seven MPs are already using Twitter, which allows updates of up to 140 characters, to be read online or sent by text message. The most prolific is Tom Watson, Labour MP for West Bromwich East, who says on his website that his “specialist interest is the digital world and social media”.
Mr Watson, who has 892 followers on Twitter, has received over 90 responses to his blog post requesting views on internet regulation. Almost all oppose the idea.
Several comments say a ratings scheme is “unworkable” on a technological or regulatory level, with one branding the minister “technically illiterate”. Others claim it would infringe free speech, note the lack of success of previous voluntary schemes and suggest educating parents instead.
One anonymous contributor pledged to “personally create one anti-Burnham blog every day” if the proposed rules are introduced. “Let’s see him censor/rate all those blogs. There will be thousands of them, all devoted to ridiculing Mr Burnham.”
Mr Watson has pledged to write to Mr Burnham at the end of the week with the responses.
In January, the Government is expected to deliver the results of a consultation into child safety online, after a review led by Tanya Byron, the child psychologist. Lord Carter, the communications minister, will also deliver his Digital Britain report next month.
