Andy Burnham on internet regulation: what he really meant to say was…

On Friday, the Guardian told us ‘Government to Tighten Up Web Controls‘.  An interesting nugget.  Culture Secretary Andy Burnham looked like he was in way over his head with some of these attributed quotes:

“The time has come for perhaps a different approach to the internet,” he said. “I want to even up that see-saw, even up the regulation [imbalance] between the old and the new.”

Actually, many clever people, including the good folks at Ofcom, have determined that there are very good reasons to treat internet services differently from TV: (i) degree of user control; (ii) lack of scarce nationalised resources used; (iii) global nature of the technology; and (iv) freedom of expression.

Burnham is way off the consensus hymm sheet…

And this gem:

“It is a new sign of our approach,” he said. “It is not just about copyright or intellectual property but [things like] taste and decency in the online world. The time will come to say what are the direct interventions [needed, if any].”

Errr… does he know the Comms Act 2003 eliminated “taste and decency” regulation for TV?

And finally:

“The internet as a whole is an excellent source of casual opinion,” he said. “TV is where people often look for expert or authoritative opinion.”

It’s unclear what this means to me.  A pyschologist would probably call it ‘projection.’  The Culture Secretary should be much more thoughtful and circumspect when discussing issues such as this.  It’s depressing that Burnham sees it is as nothing much more than a collection of Everton fan sites.

Yeah, this whole internet thing just really isn’t working out… It needs a bit of Burnham’s influence!

Anyway, the rumour mill has it that Andy Burnham may be up and out in a Labour cabinet reshuffle.  His tenure at DCMS so far has been less than stellar…