French to Block Child Pornography, Terrorism and Hate Websites
The French government has struck a deal with Internet providers ‘have struck a deal to block sites carrying child pornography or content linked to terrorism or racial hatred, Interior Minister Michel Alliot-Marie announced Tuesday.’
The plan, part of a larger effort to fight cybercriminality, is to go into effect in September when a “black list” will be built up based on input from Internet users who signal sites dealing with the offensive material, the minister said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a similar deal in the United States, also announced Tuesday. There, three service providers — Verizon, Sprint and TimeWarner Cable_ have agreed with New York state officials to block child pornography sites nationwide.
Alliot-Marie said all service providers in France have agreed to block offending sites but did not name them.
Although one can certainly understand the need to block websites that display child pornography it becomes a bit more difficult to ban ‘hate speech websites’ and terrorism websites. After all, what constitutes hate speech? Means disagreeing with the French government on controversial subjects equal ‘hate speech’?
Additionally one has to wonder whether the French care about the freedom of speech. Don’t most of us agree that we have the right to offend other people?
Although terrorism websites are obviously meant to take aim at the West as a whole, I feel that it is important to point out that supporting terrorism in words should fall under the freedom of speech as well. Of course, at the moment those websites start giving information to wannabe terrorists about how to commit terrorist attacks and where, the situation changes. But here too we have to worry about definitions.
Agreed. The "terrorism" part worries me especially, given how loose American politicians are with what constitutes supporting terrorism.
I don’t really see the need for this. Generally speaking, illegal activities should remain illegal online, which covers child pornography and conspiring with terrorists. Blocking child pornography is certainly good, but on the other hand online child porn busts allow authorities to identify and detain child predators that otherwise might pass under the radar.
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