Justin McKeating’s article on the Usmanov censorship affair is a good read, because he highlights a simple fact apparently unknown to the sort of lawyers who specialize in making critical voices “Cease and Desist”. Freedom of speech is the one issue that unites just about every one of the world’s bloggers – and this incident has done a superb job of highlighting the inanity of British Libel laws, specifically the fact that any attempt to use them to silence internet speech will almost instantly result in the opposite of the desired effect.
This is yet another example of the well documented “Barbra Streisand Effect“, however with a novel twist that our quaint Libel laws and recent legal precedent from the Demon Internet case have made our British hosting companies even more risk-adverse than usual. While we can certainly blame Mr. Usmanov for his ill-considered heavy-handed litigation, we should also share the blame with cowardly Fasthosts who pulled the plug on reciept fo Usmanov’s complaints without even the most basic verification.
