chickerinoDOTcom

tumble-log » The tale of the BNP and the Constabulary vs teh internets

Back to chickerinoDOTcom Written on 19-Nov-2008 by chickerino

Ok ok, this is a serious post.

Some background: Yesterday (November 18th), The Register reported that the BNP membership list had been leaked onto a blog on the internet (my heart bleeds, couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch etc). This contained names, addresses, phone numbers, email, professions and other details of most, if not all of the paid-up members of the party. This is bad [for the BNP] because they are a very secretive organisation - and for good reason - BNP members are not allowed to become members of the police force (though a number of them are) and specific anti-BNP restrictions apply on a number of other jobs in different goverment organisations. This aside, due to the nature of their beliefs, members of the party are not particularly popular amoungst people who are not - e.g. they are branded racists, biggots, far-right nationalists etc. In a follow up today from The Register: BNP party leader Nick Griffin said the party had sent formal demands to web hosts to remove the list. He also said the party had made a complaint to Dyfed-Powys Police - but Dyfed-Powys was unable to confirm this to us. The BNP claims it will be asking for an investigation into breaches of the Data Protection Act, theft and receipt of stolen goods and breaches of the Human Rights Act.

Attempting to tackle this problem by legal means will NOT work. By now there are undoubtably thousands of copies of the document all over the internet. Of course wikileaks has got it's hands on a copy, and The Pirate Bay indicates that there are several hundred/thousand copies floating around on BitTorrent. The problem that they now have is that because of the internet, it has ceased to be a) a problem that can be governed by UK law and b) a problem which can be governed by any law. The other issue is that they don't really have the common moral good on their side either. For one I'm hardly sympathetic towards their plight.

I find this whole debarcle particularly interesting because it is a clear example of how it is simply impossible to govern the internet. The BNP are now totally screwed because they and their members had something to hide and now there's not a chance (absolutely zero percent) that they're going to succeed in supressing the issue. The only thing they can do is ... well, I can't really think of anything they can do. They're screwed and there's going to be some serious carnage over the next few days!

Send to a friend

Tags: internet,law,fail,bnp,heart bleeds,constabulary

Comments

written on 19-Nov-2008

luke_jermy says:

Things like this always make me wonder why some groups of people are the way they are?! Why would someone believe in something to the extent that they're willing to sign their name up to a list and demonstrate actual physical support for something and then kick up a stink because they get found out about it?

The moral here... All racists are complete idiots.
written on 19-Nov-2008

julio.ferro [http://webjam.com/heydesign] says:

The funny thing is this bunch of facists loves (black) lists but once everybody knows there's one from their members they get crazy.
There was a pretty similar story here in Argentina. Both a black list from the dictatorship and either another one with "respectable" people who worked for them.
written on 20-Nov-2008

paulsari says:

I agree with obervations in the above two comments which, from my perspective, seem to underline the same reasoning in highlighting the poor consideration of far-right voters.

In their OWN VERSION of a defence, they might argue, on the other hand, that they want their identity and therewith - potentially - their place of residence concealed to protect them from some form of attack from "lefty-loonies", as the British press so enjoys labelling those who take an anti-racist stance.

After all, as I read in a paper by Angermuerller recently, "no-one (though I would argue 'very few' is more appropriate) admits to being racist". One positions oneself as either anti-racist or anti-anti-racist (because - and I generalise broadly without a care in the world in this instance - the latter group self-defines and believes in "freedom of speech").

The above case also appears to me as a good example of the success (for anti-racism) that can be drawn from humour and/or mockery (as opposed to rational argumentation strategies). In a similar vein, there was the case in Italy where a group went round painting red clown noses on all the pre-election posters from the Liga Norte.

If only I could lead a televised discussion forum with Nick Giiffin as my next birthday present! Maybe I would be proved to be quite wrong, but I do not exactly quake in my boots at the prospect of Griffin's intellect. ... Whichever way though, or perhaps for exactly that reason, that type of idea is, however, not the BNP's way of doing things.
written on 20-Nov-2008

paulsari says:

p.s. would be helpful if webjam got a spell-checker organised for the late-night - beer may have been ~~consumed~~ enjoyed - type comment and the topic is serious. aujourd'hui c'est seulement une idee. ... Tomorrow morning when I read the above through again, it will be a proposal ..hehe
written on 20-Nov-2008

asqui says:

pwned!

I love the futility of people trying to take things down from the internet. Amusing to oversee at least.

e.g. RIAA trying to fight online piracy reminds me of a man trying to swim against a fast-flowing river, determined and never giving up.
written on 20-Nov-2008

asqui says:

PS: For extra amusement go read the comments on those Pirate Bay torrents.
written on 20-Nov-2008

cristian.saracco says:

It's quite paradigmatic that these guys go to the law that they use to refuse...

And they can do something with this affair... send the same list, but adding more names... e.g.: Maggie, George, Barak,... So, they could produce some kind of confussion... I hope that they are not reading this idea!

Name:
Email (will not be published):
Website URL:
Comment:
Subscribe to comments?
Security code:

pages

tumble-log » The tale of the BNP and the Constabulary vs teh internets

Comments

Leave a Comment

© 2008, Chickerino.com and trademark owners