Matthew Taylor – who stressed he was speaking as a “citizen” not a government spokesman – said the web could be “fantastic” for democracy. But it was too often used to encourage the “shrill discourse of demands” that dominated modern politics. He was speaking on the day Mr Blair carried out an online interview.
Mr Taylor said Mr Blair’s online grilling from voters – and other initiatives such as environment secretary David Miliband’s blog and Downing Street’s new online petition service – showed the government was making good progress in using the internet to become more open and accountable. But he said more needed to be done by the web community in general to encourage people to use the internet to “solve problems” rather than simply abuse politicians or make “incommensurate” demands on them.
Read Web ‘fuelling crisis in politics’ from the BBC Technology News. Previously from WNM: The Politics of the Internet: for better or worse?
