Back lessons: How Twitter Was Slowed Down in the 19th Century

The writer Sergey Besedin found an interesting historical analogy to the "slowdown of Twitter" undertaken by the Russian authorities:

“I have been thinking for a long time what the notorious 'slowdown of Twitter' reminds me of. And then I remembered.

Of course, The Locomotive Act, or the Red Flag Act of 1865. Frightened by the development of steam and other self-run carriages, which accelerated up to a terrible 10 miles (16 kilometers) per hour, the British parliamentarians decided that locomotives can move outside the city no faster than 4 miles per hour, and in the city - a maximum of 2 miles.

In addition, a special person with a red flag must go in front of the crew and blow a tune, warning passers-by about the terrible danger.

As you can see, idiocy is an international concept. The stupid law was canceled only 33 years later. He slowed down not only the cars themselves, but all technical progress. Engineers and designers switched from developing automobiles to improving steam locomotives and steamers. If it were not for The Locomotive Act, then the enterprising British would certainly have invented a carriage with an internal combustion engine ten years earlier than the Germans, and the history of motoring would have been completely different.

However, the current Russian officials with their initiatives seem to be covered with the dust of the 19th century and descended from the pages of Dickens: greedy and conservative, like Ebenezer Scrooge, vile, mean and unprincipled, like Uriah Gip, cruel and ignorant, like Mr. Crickle. In the present century, this is the same living anachronism, like the cross-finned coelacanth fish, it is not clear how it has survived to our times..."