Censoring Cell Phones

There seems to be a trend now by governments or government agencies to temporarily suspend cell phone usage in public places when a "threat to public safety" is present. It's because the flash mob cell phone coordinated protests are very successful in mobilizing mobs who may or may not be hostile and a danger to the public. The best example of flash protests was in the London riots in which thugs used their cell phones to coordinate looting and violence in the name of "protesting".

Shutting cell phones down over an entire city isn't feasible. But this isn't true for controlling those cell addicts in more contained places. The latest example of that was in San Francisco. San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit officials said they shut down power one evening to cellular towers for stations stretching from downtown to the San Francisco's airport after learning protesters planned to use mobile devices to coordinate its demonstration. And it worked. The protests did not happen.

The question of such a blocking of cell phones brings about the question of whether governments have the right to be censor that way. Was this action about free speech or was it about public safety? Does the government have the right to cut off the free flow of information, even when it has reports that violence may happen to the public if it does not suspend cell access, as the San Fran transit says? (But does the threat it has to be an immediate threat, not just the mere supposition that there might be one as in the case of the San Fran decision?).

Then there are the cell addicts who can't live even a few minutes without their phones. They can't imagine the days when cell phones were not present and claim they would be unable to function or placed in risk without their phones. It's hard to believe being without a cell phone while riding a subway is a great sacrifice. But in the age in which we live, The Technologically Addicted Generation, even doing that is unimaginable to the addicts.

The danger of blocking cell phones in one small instance like this one is that the government may try to use cell blocking as a general policy for any perceived "threat". From my view, censorship is surely worse than protection from threats that may or may not be real. As much as I hate cell phones and think society would be a kinder, gentler, more intelligent place without them, censoring them based on conjecture is like burning down the barn to kill the rats.