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I Say, Old Chap, Big Brother Is Watching Twitter
UK government weighs monitoring social sites for security threats
By Gabriel Winant
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Posted Mar 25, 09 9:53 AM CDT
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(Newser)
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The British government wants to keep an eye on what people are doing on Facebook. On the lookout for terrorist plots, the Home Office has provoked an outcry from civil libertarians by floating a plan to track users of social networking sites, which were previously free of government monitoring, reports the Independent. The plan “would turn millions of innocent Britons into permanent suspects,” said one privacy advocate.
The government emphasized the need to close what it considers a loophole; about 25 million Britons, or half of the country's population, use social networking sites. “It is absolutely right to point out the difficulty of ensuring we maintain a capability and a capacity to deal with crime and issues of national security—and where that butts up against issues of privacy,” said the Home Office minister.