Free speech? EU ministers push ISPs to censor web after Paris attacks

© Kopp Online

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the offices of satirical newspaper and a Jewish supermarket in Paris, EU ministers have issued a joint statement calling for ISPs to help to report and remove extremist material online.

The statement was signed by interior ministers from 11 European countries -- including the UK's Theresa May -- on 11 January, with French ministers and security representatives from the US, Canada and EU in attendance. It called for tighter internet surveillance and border controls.

The letter stated that "the increasingly frequent use of the internet to fuel hatred and violence" was of great concern, and that European nations were steadfast in their "determination to ensure that the internet is not abused to this end, while safeguarding that it remains, in scrupulous observance of fundamental freedoms, a forum for free expression, in full respect of the law".

It argued that a partnership of major ISPs was "essential to create the conditions of a swift reporting of material that aims to incite hatred and terror and the condition of its removing, where appropriate/possible". This would be in an effort "to prevent and detect radicalisation in an early stage".

In March 2014, the UK's minister for immigration and security alluded to the need for similarly vast internet controls that would give the government details on material "that may not be illegal but certainly is unsavoury and may not be the sort of material that people would want to see or receive" -- namely terrorist propaganda.

The ministers also took the opportunity to reaffirm an "unfailing attachment to the freedom of expression, to human rights, to pluralism, to democracy, to tolerance and to the rule of law".

"By attacking Charlie Hebdo, police officers and Jewish community, the terrorists set out to tear down these universal values. They will not succeed," the letter argued.

Chomsky: We Are All – Fill in the Blank.

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