David Cameron’s favourite porn filter is Chinese

We talked about the automatic porn filters David Cameron wants all ISPs to implement a couple of days ago and boy did it get you guys riled up. Understandably so as well. We're talking about a government censoring the internet, that always makes us mad. However, the government won't actually have much to do with it, since it wants private companies to handle it, like the Chinese one currently managing TalkTalk's voluntary filter.

Any mention of China and the internet is sure to put the scare in people, because that Eastern nation doesn't exactly have a great reputation when it comes to a free and open internet – or human rights. Hower Huawei, the company in question, has received a lot of praise from Mr Cameron; he's a big fan.

That said, he doesn't want to force a filter choice on ISPs, just the filter itself. Essentially what he's doing, is giving ISPs (private companies) the ability and legal right to filter the internet to customer as they see fit. This, understandably, hasn't sat well with everyone.

‘Have you people any idea how much time I waste looking at porn? It must be banned.' – David Cameron

Dr Martyn Thomas, chair of IT policy at the Institution of Engineering and Technology said while speaking with the BBC: “It needs to be run by an organisation accountable to a minister so it can be challenged in Parliament.”

As he continued to point out, there are business interests at threat with a filter run by a private company: “You could easily imagine a commercial organisation finding itself on that blacklist wrongly, and where they actually lost a lot of web traffic completely silently and suffered commercial damage. The issue is who gets to choose who's on that blocking list, and what accountability do they have?”

Who's to say TalkTalk, or any of the other ISPs (or the potentially foreign firms they hire to manage the filter) wouldn't block their competitor's websites? That would be a bit obvious, but it could be easily done.

However there are potential problems already, with TalkTalk's filtering firm Huawei. While the ISP is happy with its relationship and David Cameron has got butterflies in his tummy, the Chinese firm has been linked with the ruling party in China and some have even gone so far as to say that Huawei is a threat to national security. While the president of the company denies any involvement with the Chinese government, the founder of Huawei is a former member of the China's People's Liberation Army and many people are concerned with its rapid expansion in the UK.

KitGuru Says: If TalkTalk already has a voluntary filter in place, why can't parents just sign up for that if they want to block things for their kids, or look into a third party bit of software? Why does the prime minister of a country feel the need to weigh in on pornography and private business practices? Go and sign an energy deal or a peace treaty or something and leave our porn alone.

It seems so ridiculous that a man who's championed “big society,” over big government, feels that the politicians shouldn't be that involved in the lives of people, except when it comes to pornography and drugs. The hypocrisy that people should be given the ability to pull themselves up, not helped up, but yet told they can't do certain things that only affect them is ridiculous. 

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