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French to vote on internet censorship bill next week
Next Tuesday French lawmakers will vote on a bill dubbed 'Loppsi 2' that will give the authorities the power to force ISPs to block access to any web address.
The intention of the bill is to allow French authorities to block sites in order to prevent the distribution of child pornography, but ultimately gives the government unilateral control to filter the internet. Amendments to the bill requiring a judge to review the list of filtered sites every month and making the filters temporary to review their effectiveness were rejected.
Under the current language, the blocked list will be kept secret with no judicial oversight. Theoretically, the administration could decide to block Google, Facebook, or any internet address that they consider to be in violation.
The bill has been deemed 'Urgent' so as to bypass the usual four readings before a vote -- and will instead go to the French Senate for a final vote next week, if passed.
Is it me, or are more western democracies looking a lot more like China and Iran then they should? Seems to be a lot of blocking going around the nets these days.
You can read more about the legislation here and from Le Monde here.
[via Slashdot & Good Gear Guide]
Comments
9
Subscribe to commentsstereobotFeb 12th 2010 5:04PM
Totalitarianism is the new Democracy. Its been happening for years under the guise of "protection from terrorists".
Howard PearceFeb 12th 2010 6:06PM
It's been happening for years under both liberal and conservative ideology.
The liberal view of cencoship they have the guts to label The Fairness Doctrine.
mkoFeb 12th 2010 6:58PM
My view on Internet censorship is the same as censorship in general.
If a columnist on a newspaper can say "sarkozy sucks" so should a blogger.
If not I don't see why Internet should be any different.
FreeOurInternetFeb 12th 2010 11:02PM
Are you kidding me? This is the take over of our internet as we know it.
Go to the OpenId home page, google it. Notice how the white house sits above all the other companies backing one form of ID for the internet, Yahoo, Google, Myspace, Word Press, AOL, ALL BACKING ONE FORM OF ID. Preferably biometric I might add. Since when do all these companies agree on anything?
Google Infowars Internet, or check out youtube. There is a take over in place as we speak of our internet and no one is talking about it. Sites sponsored by AOL, and newspapers, don't want to talk about it because they know it will destroy independent media. They have lost a lot of money from independent media, and they know they will be on the allow lists once internet 2.0 is put into place.
BIO METRIC DATA USED TO LOG INTO ALL INTERNET ACTIVITY.
Search facebook for the group "Protect Internet Freedom" for more information.
insanelyappleFeb 13th 2010 11:47AM
same thing happened in poland about 1,5 week ago, but then many net surfer show prime minister what they think about similiar law that was proposed in antigambling act - he meet with them and then, decided to rethink whole idea with his people... noone is sure thats true but were safe for some time.
whats interesting that net censorship case started to buzz after meeting sarkozy-tusk.
ragtagFeb 13th 2010 1:05PM
I hope the French say no to this, so that other EU nations don't follow their bad example....well those that haven't already done it. Kiddy porn and terrorism seem to be the main excuses politicians use to take away our freedom and liberties these days. The sad thing is that those with the know how, like all terrorist groups and some pedos, can easily get around these kind of blocks.
Also having a secret list is quite problematc, it means that nobody can verify if the sites being blocked are sites that should be blocked or not, while a public list would be like a index of sites to visit for pedos. :P
Say NO France!
DarthNinjaFeb 13th 2010 5:07PM
I'm getting tired of hearing about internet censoring in the name of child pornography.
It's just a bullshit line that everyone knows they can get away with.
JamesFeb 13th 2010 8:18PM
Urgent? Wow. HAY GUYS I JUST FOUND OUT THERES THIS INTERNET THING HOLY SHIT WE SHOUD FIX THAT RIGHT NOW!!!!!!
Frankly I'm a bit surprised to hear it's the French doing this first -- the Brits have the history of surveillance culture, and the Germans have a longer pedigree of censorship. I hope they hear enough from their constituents to shoot it down. And more to the point, I'm sick of seeing governments try to ram through ideas they know are going to be unpopular in the dead of night, like no one is going to notice.
enerGIFeb 13th 2010 10:32PM
The Australian Government want to censor the internet here too, with exactly the same spin as the French. The reason why they want to censor, pure and simple, they want control of the information that is put out. Information is power. There must be other ways to control child pornography and the like, than putting blocks on everyones access. All the work is being done by the shadowmen in the back rooms of government to control the net.