"Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet, We disagree."
The above quote was taken from page 82 of the Conservative 2017 manifesto, a document outlining the tories plan for the country if reelected on 8th June 2017.
I feel it's important to draw attention to this article seeing as it sheds light on how the UK plans to become "the global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet" (page 38) and the ramifications on this for internet users in the UK.
For those currently unaware, the UK government is on a winning streak of beating the concept of personal freedoms into a pulp, shoving it in a box, and putting it out to sea. The recent Investigatory Powers Act has already given them legal clearance to have the browsing activities of every UK citizen logged, making them warrantlessly available to all sorts of government bodies and agencies such as the Department for Work and Pensions and the Food Standards Agency.
If the proposals in this manifesto were to be put in place, the UK government would have the ability to play the role of thought police literally choosing what people are allowed to say on social media and making the companies hosting said media responsible for it. Such power would cause unspeakable harm to the basic human right of the ability to speak freely and privately to whom you wish if used improperly.
It's worth noting that we've now seen two of the three main components that an authoritarian dictatorship requires to control every detail of the actions of people online. They can see what any individual was doing at any time in the past year (I believe it's a year), and they are looking to control what people are allowed to say, forcing the hand of social media networks accordingly. In this hypothetical scenario, the third component would be to place sanctions on people who are behaving unpatriotically, suppressing those who spread descenting opinions about said controls by branding them as a threat to national security.