Theresa May’s pledge to regulate the internet to clamp down on the “safe space” for radical jihadis risks turning the web into a tool for surveillance and censorship, the Liberal Democrats’ leader has said.
“These issues are not going be solved with political gimmicks or by banning particular technologies,” Farron wrote in an article for the Guardian.
Theresa May can’t be trusted to get it right on counter-terrorism policy | Tim Farron Read more.
“The alternative is a government that monitors and controls the internet in the way that China or North Korea does.
If we turn the internet into a tool for censorship and surveillance, the terrorists will have won.
Farron said politicians did the intelligence agencies “a great disservice” where the only response was tough rhetoric.
Farron said reversing the cuts to the police service would have a bigger effect on the prevention of terror attacks than banning certain technologies. »