First They Came for Porn, Then They Came for Infowars

CONSPIRACYVILLE—In the continuing saga of Strange Bedfellows, Infowars is sounding a clarion call about the just-announced plan to block internet porn in the United Kingdom, and asks if “conspiracy theories” are next. “Under new legislation,” writes Paul Joseph Watson for the site, “every Internet user will be contacted by their service provider and asked whether they want the government filters switched on or off. Customers signing up to new broadband packages will automatically have the filters enacted by default. The filters will also be installed on all new cell phones. “’Horrific’ Internet search terms will also be completely blacklisted under the legislation,” he continues. “Although for the moment, Internet users will be able to opt out of the filter, this clearly represents a step in the direction of centralizing control of Internet content in the hands of the state since parents are already able to install their own web filters to block any website they wish.” The implications are not lost on Watson, who adds, “Given that major think tanks with direct ties to the UK government like Demos have claimed that ‘conspiracy theories,’ which is a pejorative term for anything that challenges the official narrative, cause violence, how long before anti-establishment websites are also included on a government blacklist?” Watson thinks the move by British Prime Minister David Cameron is a step in the direction of China’s “Internet policing systems.” He’s literally correct, of course, but it’s nothing new for the porn industry, which is now officially a “closely regulated” industry, a designation made solely by the government (and its judicial lackeys) that allows warrantless searches of businesses that create or disseminate adult content depicting adults of any age. It’s not a conspiracy theory of it’s really happening. Infowars might want to step up its support of an industry that lives on the Maginot Line of the culture wars before its outflanked and overrun by governments gone wild.