2014 UK Porn Censorship Protest
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Overview
2014 UK Porn Censorship Protest was a public demonstration in the United Kingdom following the government's introduction of new regulations prohibiting the performance of several sex acts in the UK adult entertainment industry in December 2014.
Background
In October 2011, British Prime Minister David Cameron announced plans to work with broadband Internet service providers (ISPs) to restrict access to pornographic websites.[1] His initial proposition included an opt-in system where ISPs would automatically filter questionable content unless a user specifically asked to make everything available. In 2012, Cameron was reported to be working on these measures, citing children as young as 11 who had become addicted to online pornography.[2][3][4] In June 2013, Cameron was interviewed by Sky News (shown below), where he claimed ISPS were not doing enough to prosecute pedophiles and remove child pornography from the web. The following month, Cameron announced the creation of a global alliance to remove child pornography and encouraged search engines including Google and Bing to have a blacklist of search terms like "child sex" that would direct users to alternate searches.
In the announcement, Cameron revealed that the opt-in system go into effect for all UK Internet users by the end of 2014. Additionally, "violent" or "extreme" porn would become illegal, including images or video that depict simulated rape.[5] Free-speech advocates in the UK were angered by the news,[7] questioning who would decide what content was legal or illegal after the filter's launch. On July 22nd, "UK Porn" was mentioned more than 36,000 times on Twitter.[8] On December 1st, the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations (AMSR)[12] went into effect, banning pornographic media depicting acts that could be “potentially life-threatening.”
Notable Developments
#PornProtest
On December 2nd, 2014, sex worker Charlie Rose launched a Facebook event titled "Protest outside parliament against sexist porn law! – old palace yard,"[13] gathering over 1,100 supporters in the next two weeks. On December 9th, London24 News[14] published an article about the event, which was later shared on Reddit[15] where it gained more than 4,600 upvotes in the 72 hours before the protest. On December 12th, 2014, the mass "face-sitting" protest was held outside the Houses of Parliament in central London, which aimed to simulate some of the banned sex acts imposed by the new AMSR.[9][10] Attendees of the demonstration took to Twitter with the hashtag "#PornProtest"[11] to share pictures and thoughts on the events, creating over 6,000 tweets within the first hours of the protest. That day, images from the event were shared in a post on the /r/pics[16] subreddit, where it garnered upwards of 3,000 votes and 420 comments in 6 hours.
Search Interest
External References
[1] The Telegraph – David Cameron's porn-block pledge: unclear, unnecessary and completely unworkable
[2] Metro – David Cameron considers strengthening porn blocking controls
[3] The Verge – UK Prime Minister David Cameron pushes for filter safeguards against internet porn
[4] The Guardian – David Cameron plans internet filter prompts to protect children from porn
[5] NPR – U.K. Cracking Down On Porn, Blocking It Unless Users Opt In
[6] RT – ‘Unavoidable choice’: Cameron readying UK internet porn block
[7] Slate – David Cameron introduces default filter to block access to Internet porn
[8] Topsy – Tweet Statistics for "uk porn"
[9] CNN World – 'Face-sitting' protest held over UK porn censorship law
[10] The Independent – Porn protest: Face-sitting demonstration is underway outside parliament
[11] Topsy – Analytics – #pornprotest
[12] UK Legislation – Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014
[13] Facebook – Event – Protest outside parliament against sexist porn law! – old palace yard
[14] London24 News – Porn Protest to Shock with Mass Face Sitting
[15] Reddit – UK: Porn protest to shock with mass ‘face-sitting’ and fake sex
[16] Reddit – Face-sitting protest outside Parliament against new porn rules
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Top Comments
James Blunt Moderator
Dec 12, 2014 at 02:03PM EST
Particle Mare
Dec 12, 2014 at 02:17PM EST in reply to