英国三分之二支持动荡期关闭社交网站

一项有973名英国成年人参与的调查显示，超过三分之二的人都赞成在社会动荡时期关闭Twitter、Facebook等社交网站；四分之三的人认为政府应该有公开的渠道获取社交网站用户数据，以防范联合犯罪。上述观点的支持者当中，65岁以上的人占绝大多数，社交网络用户最多的18到24岁人群则不太支持。在今年8月爆发的英国骚乱中，已经有数人因使用Facebook煽动暴力被判刑。言论自由派人士则表示，随着人们生活与网络的关系日益密切，人们在考虑将更多的决定权交给政府之前要慎重思考。

More than two-thirds of adults support the shutdown of social networks during periods of social unrest such as the riots in England this summer, new research has revealed.

A poll of 973 adults carried out for the online security firm Unisys found 70% of adults supported the shutdown of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)， while only 27% disagreed.

Three-quarters agreed that governments should have open access to data on social network users in order to prevent co-ordinated crime. Support for action against social networks was strongest among over-65s and weakest among 18 to 24-year-olds, who are the heaviest users of the online services.

Several people were convicted of attempting to start disturbances using Facebook during the outbreak of rioting across England in August. The court of appeal recently rejected a bid to lower the sentences of two people sent to prison for four years for attempting to orchestrate riots on the social media site, despite them not leading to any disturbances.

Analysis by the Guardian of 2.5m tweets relating to the riots – part of its Reading the Riots study in conjunction with the London School of Economics – found little evidence to support claims the network had been used to instigate unrest. However, the BBM network was believed to have played a role in organising disturbances.

Freedom of expression campaigners said they were worried that Britons were sanctioning draconian measures as ever more services shift online.

"It's very worrying that people would believe shutting down social networks would be in any way desirable," said Padraig Reidy, news editor of Index on Censorship. "The vast majority of social network use during the unrest was people spreading information and helping each other get home safely. These kinds of actions would weaken the UK's position against authoritarian regimes who censor internet access. As we live more of our lives online, people should be conscious of the amount of power they're potentially handing over to government."

Jonathan Polnay, a barrister in criminal law and member of the Bar Council's IT Committee, said developments across 2011 suggested the UK's legal apparatus was failing to keep pace with technological change.

"We've seen discussions about libel and super-injunctions on Twitter; the use of social networking to coordinate civil unrest in UK cities and a series of high profile attacks on well-known companies which have led to loss of data," he said. "It is important that the law quickly evolves to address issues related to new technology."