A year ago today The Spectator ran an article in which Claire Perry said, in reference to online filters, that 

I’m in no way the Mary Whitehouse of thisClaire Perry

Well a year later and people are not only referring to her as that but putting her in the same category as the Stasi and book burners;

@PornPanic wonder if @claire4devizes realises history will categorise her along with the like of book burners, the Stasi and Mary Whitehouse

— Megalomaniac (@dr_megalomaniac) December 19, 2013

 

At one point the plan was for a filter that checks the age of the child browsing, rather than her original call for all users to opt-in to accessing adult content on their computer, which a government consultation rejected. Somehow, 12 months later, we have exactly that.

Despite criticism from the ISPs, celebrity advisors and the Internet at large Claire Perry is proud that the government is pushing ahead with these plans.

Regardless of what people tweet, history will look back at sources such as the BBC and Wikipedia where her name sits side by side with the words Internet Censorship.

Claire Perry, you’ve made the world slightly worse.