Tag Archives: social networks

Video: Nick Clegg says, “We are not going to start cutting people off from social networks”

By Helen Duffett | Published 25th August 2011 - 8:26 pm

Nick Clegg has said that the government won’t “start cutting people off” from social networking sites, following the riots two weeks ago.

He also pointed out the value of such networks in emergency situations like these:

As it happens, those social media sites were also quite useful for the police to communicate with people, and were also quite useful for people to communicate with each other to avoid trouble. So there’s another side to the story and we will proceed with this with a great

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

Censoring social media during riots: good news, mostly

By Mark Pack | Published 16th August 2011 - 7:26 am

Talking to Liberal Democrats in Whitehall about Cameron’s misguided talk of social media bans during riots, the reactions range from the bluntly oppositional to the intriguing repeated suggestion that Cameron himself misspoke and didn’t really mean to suggest anything more than looking at how the police can best use existing laws.

So far, so good.

The one caveat to watch out for is that in other areas Conservative ministers such as Ed Vaizey have shown a strong liking for self-regulation by industry. Applied to social media and riots, this could see attempts to encourage the industry to agree sweeping procedures with …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , | 4 Comments

LibLink: Mark Pack – Is it simply a question of politicians and pundits always trying to ban technologies they don’t use?

By Nick Thornsby | Published 13th August 2011 - 12:51 pm

Over on the MHP blog, Mark Pack makes a good point about the calls from some politicians to ban or restrict the use of social networking in response to the riots.

Here’s some of what Mark has to say:

Yet from some commentators and MPs there were immediate demands to suspend, curtail or otherwise regulate social networks. This was echoed today by David Cameron who promised that the government will look into this very question.

However, the number of communication technologies in the firing line is far short of the number involved in the events. Rolling TV coverage gave the events wall-to-wall coverage.

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , | 6 Comments

One Canadian online political campaigning rule unlikely to make it to the UK

By Mark Pack | Published 14th April 2011 - 2:24 pm

Canada’s CBC News reports:

A politician running to lead the B.C. New Democrats says he is refusing to comply with a requirement of leadership hopefuls to hand over the passwords to their social media accounts.

Nicholas Simons, an NDP MLA who’s hoping to run in the leadership race, says he’s left that information off his nomination package.

The party’s intent is to try to ensure there are no skeletons hidden in candidates’ private profiles.

As the report mentions, leaving aside the gauche politics of this, it’s also rather unwise to demand someone hands over passwords when it is a common feature of terms …

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , | 2 Comments

Social media: heavily used by candidates with best chances of winning

By Mark Pack | Published 5th April 2010 - 4:20 pm

A ComRes survey of 101 Parliamentary candidates “who are likely to win or retain their seats” has found very heavy use of social media.

Around half the Parliamentary seats in the UK have not changed hands even once between different political parties in the last forty years, which helps explain why overall levels of take-up amongst MPs and candidates is usually on the range modest to quite good (though in fact often compare very well, for example, with large UK firms).

However, as this survey indicates, there are much higher than average levels of take-up amongst those were the election result is …

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

Social media’s impact on politics, part two: where to find the big impact

By Mark Pack | Published 4th February 2010 - 10:20 am

Welcome to the concluding part of a two-part series about the real impact social media (or social networking) is having on politics in Britain. Last week I looked at the groups which face extinction; today it’s why pundits searching for the impact of social media on politics in 2010 are looking in the wrong place.

For the third general election in a row, people are lining up to debate whether or not this one will be the internet election; the election when politics radically changes in the face of the technological change that has already swept the world.

Here’s my prediction. …

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics, Op-eds | Also tagged , | Leave a comment

Social media’s impact on politics, part one: the groups that face extinction

By Mark Pack | Published 28th January 2010 - 10:20 am

Welcome to a two-part series about the real impact social media (or social networking) is having on politics in Britain. In part one I look at the groups which face extinction, whilst in part two I will look at why pundits searching for the impact of social media on politics in 2010 are looking in the wrong place.

What impact has the introduction of cheap colouring printing technology had on British politics? Almost none. Certainly many more leaflets are colour than used to be the case, more target letters contain colour inserts and a generation of amateur designers have had the …

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics, Op-eds | Also tagged , , , | 8 Comments

How will ACT and Facebook sit together?

By Mark Pack | Published 27th November 2009 - 11:20 am

As we covered earlier this week, the Liberal Democrats now have a new social network – ACT. Unsurprisingly one of the most common comments made since its launch has been, “how does this fit with Facebook?”. The party’s previous decision to have a heavy emphasis on using Facebook, both for its centrally inspired social networking activities and also as the tool recommended and supported for widespread use at the local level, was one largely made by myself when working there, so it’s a question that interests me too.

I’m glad to say that the move to set up ACT …

Continue reading »
Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , , | 7 Comments

ACT: the Lib Dems’ new action network launched today

By David Loxton | Published 25th November 2009 - 11:49 am

Screenshot of ACT - the Lib Dems' action networkToday sees the public launch of ACT, the Liberal Democrats’ new social action network. This is the second launch in our three-part strategy,following on from the new-look libdems.org.uk.

ACT is a place where supporters can connect with one another, organise events and campaigns, share photos and videos and talk about politics.

Our aim is to reach a community of Liberal Democrats that extends beyond the formal boundary of party membership. So although ACT will …

Continue reading »
Posted in News, Online politics | Also tagged | 11 Comments