

Claire Perry is the UK Tory MP who architected David Cameron's idiotic national porno firewall plan. Her website was hacked and defaced with pornographic gross-out/shock images. When Guido Fawkes, a reporter and blogger, wrote about it on his website, Perry took to Twitter to accuse him of "sponsoring" the hack, and publicly announced that she would be speaking to his editor at the Sun (Fawkes has a column with the tabloid) to punish him for writing about her embarrassment.

Perry is so technologically illiterate that she can't tell the difference between writing about someone hacking your website and hacking itself. No wonder she's credulous enough to believe the magic-beans-peddlers who promise her that they'll keep porn off the British Internet — a feat that neither the Chinese nor the Iranian governments have managed.

There are a couple of very obvious observations to make about this particular exchange beyond the fact that she evidently doesn't understand the difference between a hyperlink and a screenshot:- The first is that Perry's apology to "anyone affected by the hacking of my website sponsored by @GuidoFawkes" is quite clearly defamatory, assuming that Guido didn't in fact 'sponsor' the website hacking – and frankly, I've known Guido long enough to know that he's certainly not dumb enough to get his hands dirty in such a manner. The second is that, having failed to intimidate Guido into dropping his article, Perry resorts to threatening his paid gig as a columnist at the Sun on Sunday, and whatever you think of his decision to take the Murdoch shilling, the fact remains that threats of this kind are absolutely characteristic of the would-be bully who fails to get their own way on the internet and a key reason why so many bloggers have, over the years, chosen to write under a pseudonym, particularly those of us who write about controversial subjects and issues.

For the record, I'm no fan of Fawkes, and I wouldn't line a birdcage with the Sun. But when a powerful politician threatens to get journalists fired for reporting inconvenient news, she abuses her office and acts as a public bully. Perry is perfectly awful in every single way, and has committed a major ethical breach, as well as likely violating Britain's (ridiculous) libel laws.

Ministry of Truth » Blog Archive » Cameron 'Porn' Advisor's website 'hacked' – Threatens/Libels Blogger [Unity/Ministry of Truth]

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