France starts blocking websites with views it does not like

[Deleted]

Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...snt-like.shtml

Quotes:

We had been noting, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France, how the country that then held a giant "free speech" rally appeared to be, instead, focusing on cracking down on free speech at every opportunity. And target number one: the internet. Earlier this week, the Interior Minister of France -- with no court review or adversarial process -- ordered five websites to not only be blocked in France, but that anyone who visits any of the sites get redirected to a scary looking government website,
...
It appears that the French government has a very low opinion of the intelligence of the French public -- believing that merely reading something online will suddenly make them rush to join ISIS.
...
All that talk about France and free speech quickly fade into nothing. As Glenn Greenwald, at the Intercept [ed. one of the few journalists in the world with the full Snowden revelations], points out in response to all of this, blatant government censorship is far more damaging than terrorist attacks (while also noting that governments around the globe are moving in similar directions):[*]
...
France's "motto" is supposedly Liberté, égalité, fraternité. I have difficulty seeing how blatantly censoring websites you disagree with, without any sort of due process, fits with any of those three ideals.

[*]
"In sum, far more damage has been inflicted historically by efforts to censor and criminalize political ideas than by the kind of “terrorism” these governments are invoking to justify these censorship powers.

And whatever else may be true, few things are more inimical to, or threatening of, Internet freedom than allowing functionaries inside governments to unilaterally block websites from functioning on the ground that the ideas those sites advocate are objectionable or “dangerous.” That’s every bit as true when the censors are in Paris, London, and Ottawa, and Washington as when they are in Tehran, Moscow or Beijing."

[Deleted]

"You are being redirected to this official website since your computer was about to connect with a page that provokes terrorist acts or condones terrorism publicly. "

Soundss kinda reasonable.

[Belize]

EU free speech laws are a lot more stringent than NA's. France being a major leader of blocking out things.

Everything is "offensive" and being "offensive" means jail/fines/censors.

[Deleted]

"You are being redirected to this official website since your computer was about to connect with a page that provokes terrorist acts or condones terrorism publicly. "

Soundss kinda reasonable.

I hope you are being sarcastic.

[Tradewind]

Unfortunately my internet has blocked access to giveafuck.com. There's VPN's out there if people -really- wanted to look at those sites. It's no different than blocking pirate bay and all other such shit, if you're promoting illegal activities you're going to have a bad time.

[Deleted]

I hope you are being sarcastic.

You think promoting terrorism is allright or falls under free speech?

[zorkuus]

I'm the first guy to say speech should not be censored but I don't think terrorism should fall under that protection.

[Bigbazz]

They're shutting down/blocking terrorist organisation websites to help reduce the recruitment efforts of groups like the IS... Your title is misleading bait.

[Belize]

You think promoting terrorism is allright or falls under free speech?

It's a bit of a slippery slope though. According to the article (however credible it is), the government just censored islamic news that might or might not be harboring terrorism support without notice.

[dextersmith]

They're shutting down/blocking terrorist organisation websites to help reduce the recruitment efforts of groups like the IS... Your title is misleading bait.

I was just thinking: This after the cartoonist death protests?

[Deleted]

You think promoting terrorism is allright or falls under free speech?

It has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism. So, let's just ignore the values of the country under question entirely and consider other issues:

1. Who decides what is "promoting terrorism"? It can be literally *anything*. If you had actually read the article, you would realize, for example, that at least one of the websites has nothing to do with terrorism. They have zero recourse, despite being French.

2. Any site anywhere can have consistent themes of any form of speech on it, including this very site, as well as the giant portals of the Internet, Facebook, Reddit, Google, Twitter and others. There are likely far more examples of extreme and hateful speech on a single one of these portals than all other sites on the Internet put together, almost by definition due to their size. It is also all but impossible to stop people roaming freely through them. I shudder to think every time I've seen it on Reddit, Facebook and Twitter for example...

3. This move is completely irrelevant for those who both want to obtain such material or want to go even further and communicate or coordinate with each other. There are all kinds of trivial technical ways around it, let alone the whole mobile and physical (IRL) space. It is the Internet not some government registered company or school. It is built from the ground up for information to always flow.

So, at the end of the day, the only people being impacted are perfectly ordinary citizens with no terrorism ambitions whatsoever. The real aspiring and actual terrorists will just navigate around it, use secrecy and be hidden underground.

You can also bet your life, it will not stop there....

[PC2]

Nothing surprising. France may have the biggest problem of any in Western Europe. Becoming more authoritarian will probably be mandatory as they become less homogenous.

[Noomz]

Source: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...snt-like.shtml

Quotes:


[*]
"In sum, far more damage has been inflicted historically by efforts to censor and criminalize political ideas than by the kind of “terrorism” these governments are invoking to justify these censorship powers.

And whatever else may be true, few things are more inimical to, or threatening of, Internet freedom than allowing functionaries inside governments to unilaterally block websites from functioning on the ground that the ideas those sites advocate are objectionable or “dangerous.” That’s every bit as true when the censors are in Paris, London, and Ottawa, and Washington as when they are in Tehran, Moscow or Beijing."

So you think terrorism websites are covered by free speech?

[Independent voter]

Twitter and Facebook have been trying to remove ISIS accounts. They're not 100% successful. I don't know if that's censorship since both Facebook and Twitter are private companies and not nations.

[Deleted]

Twitter and Facebook have been trying to remove ISIS accounts. They're not 100% successful. I don't know if that's censorship since both Facebook and Twitter are private companies and not nations.

Those are private companies to which you have signed their contracts. By definition, they can remove anything they like at any time for no reason given whatsoever, like you could on your property. Hardly comparable to a nation. Though in the case of France, it likely will not be long...

[Deleted]

Terrorism = bad.
Blocking access to pro terrorism sites = good.

Really not seeing the problem here. When they start to do stupid shit like blocking Marmite.com because the president doesn't like it, then we can talk.

[stabetha]

ah yes the "European Ideal" the American left is striving for

[Mormolyce]

Don't terrorism websites get shut down or blocked in the US as well?

ah yes the "European Ideal" the American left is striving for

Unlike the right, which passionately defends terrorism websites?

[stumpy]

Unlike the right, which passionately defends terrorism websites?

Well, they are encouraging Iran to pursue nuclear weapons...

[Shurkuris]

So now all Christian websites are blocked because they promote the fact that Christianity could actually be equal to that of Islam. Just the fact that their is another Religion out their becomes a symbol of religious rivalry.

Let's see...

Websites that supports Jews, because that means Israel. And Israel is a baaaadd place, so any News Site that talks about Israel is blocked...

My grandparents were Christians so I guess that means I'm tainted by Christians, so I might become a possible far-off-future "threat" that would promote radicals in Islam to kill other Christians. So they better block anything related to me or any of my extended family members out in China, India, Russia, Germany, South America and Italy.