Politicians And Email Don't Mix
from the don't-want-to-mix-with-the-commonfolk dept
Running a government would be so much nicer if you didn't actually have to hear from "the people." At least that seems to be the opinion of a bunch of politicians who have decided that email is too much for them to deal with. Of course, the point they're making is that it's simply too easy to flood their email boxes with junk from people who have very strong opinions on various issues. Mixing that in with the spam, can certainly make email a more difficult tool for communication -- but it seems to be going a bit far to suggest that politicians should close off email as a point of contact. Yes, there are downsides to making it so easy to contact a politician -- but that doesn't mean there isn't value in that as well. In the meantime, over in the UK, some politicians are apparently regretting the decision to use email as well -- but for a different reason. As new freedom of information laws are about to go into effect in the UK, politicians are being told to delete all their emails to avoid having to reveal it via FoI requests.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Include Address
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Politicians[sic] And Email Don't Mix
the story is about Civil Servants being instructed to delete old and inconsequential e-mail. Nothing to do with Politicians.
In the UK Civil Servants are supposed to be apolitical and are not dependent on a given political party or politician for their jobs. Technically they are employed 'by the crown'.
Could be worth reading and understanding a story before making up a catchy headline next time?
[ link to this | view in thread ]