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So where exactly are the detailed proposals to censor the internet, which European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini supposedly announced in the "Counter-terrorism package" this Tuesday 6th November 2007, after a couple of years of promising to somehow "ban" internet websites which contain "bomb making instructions" ?

The Register and Statewatch and Agoravox have analyses of the Proposal amending the 2002 Decision on combating terrism: COM (2007) 650

We wrote to Franco Frattini and asked some obvious questions about this back of a fag packet soundbite plan to censor the internet, and it was evident that he and his fellow eurocrats had little or no clue as to the practicalities or the knock on effects of such a policy. See the responses to our 17 Questions and the subsequent follow up etc. in the previous blog postings in the EU plans for internet censorship category archive.

So, after a year of vague consultation (not based on any detailed specific EU Commission detailed practical proposals) with vested securocrat interests, industry lobbyists, apparatchiki, quangos and some token legal and human rights organisations, etc, but not, repeat not, an actual public consultation with the citizens of the European Union, what exactly is now being proposed ?

We are astonished that the actual proposed amendments do not specifically mention the Internet or World WIde Web sites at all !

Have we somehow missed a secret EU Commission document, or have our modest writings and correspondence with Franco Frattini's office, been amplified by other voices of reason, who have managed to neuter his daft soundbite proposals for internet censorship ?

Here is the text of what is being proposed - ignore all the pre-amble etc. - this is the bit that would be legally binding in the amended Framework Decision:

Continue reading "EU Commission counter-terrorism package - where is the threatened censorship of bomb making websites ?" »

Posted by at 4:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

[via Samizdata and Ben Laurie]

See our EU plans for internet censorship archive for details of our correspondence with the European Commission on this controversial topic of censorship which would also apply to the press and media as well as to the "internet". Any laws which are broad enough to catch all the variants of the "internet" must also catch all forms of traditional publishing and broadcasting or any other form of disseminating information as well, which will have a chilling effect on free speech.

Even the updated Answers to our original 17 Questions which we asked when Franco Frattini, egged on by the then UK Home Secretary John "not fit for purpose" Reid, first started talking about his plans in public last year, reveal a high level of ignorance about the practicalities, effectiveness and costs of any such scheme.

There seems to be a willingness to institute repressive "ends justifies the means" policies on millions of innocent European Union citizens, without any mechanisms for curtailing the inevitable excesses of bureaucrats, or for compensation to individuals and businesses when the army of censors cock things up.

Together the European Commissions closely allied plans to further criminalise "inciting, aiding or abetting terrorist offences", these proposals will only help terrorists to gather new recruits and to further their aims to destroy our relatively free society, without actually hindering real terrorists or criminals.

Reuters reports:

Web search for bomb recipes should be blocked: EU

Mon Sep 10, 2007 1:16PM EDT

By Ingrid Melander

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday.

Internet providers should also prevent access to any site giving instructions on how to make a bomb, EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said in an interview.

"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.

Dangerous word ? WoIl Franco Frattinni's Thought Police also ban searches for ThoughtCrime ?

Given how quickly and easily "illegal" data can be mirrored, shifted or disguised on the internet, especially in countries outside of the legal jurisdiction of the European Union (i.e. most of the world) what evidence is there that crudely banning searches or websites etc. is a superior and more effective counter-terrorism strategy than covert surveillance and intelligence gathering aimed at the fanatics and criminals ?

Once the infrastructure of legal and technical censorship mechanisms are in place, what is there to prevent them being stealthily extended via the usual "function creep" so beloved of large faceless bureaucracies ?

Continue reading "European Commissioner Franco Frattini persists with his repressive plans for internet and press censorship" »

Posted by at 1:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

See the previous blog posting Update on the European Commission plans for EU wide internet censorship for the list of NGOs to which this Questionnaire has been sent.

Annex

Subject: Questionnaire on inciting, aiding or abetting terrorist offences

Continue reading "European Commission - Questionnaire on inciting, aiding or abetting terrorist offences" »

Posted by at 7:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Last August, at the during the Labour Government's "Critical Threat" hype and media spin hysteria over the alleged "liquid binary bomb" threat to aeroplanes, the overreaction to which, included arbitrary minor changes in the bureaucratic regulations regarding passengers' hand luggage restrictions, caused chaos and millions of pounds of economic damage. The thousands of passengers who flew without their hold luggage, which flew on without them as a result of this chaos actually increased the danger from a Pan Am flight 103 Lockerbie style terrorist bomb on an aeroplane, rather than a suicide mission.

At the time, the former Home Secretary John Reid was feeding "tough on terrorism" soundbites to the mainstream media, along with Vice President of the European Commission Franco Frattini, who promised some sort of European Union wide policy on "banning websites" containing "bomb making" instructions, or other "terrorist" related information.

We wrote to Franco Frattini and asked 17 Questions, to which we got mostly "too early to say yet" replies regarding specifics:

• Response from the European Commission regarding the policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 1

• European Commission policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 2

• European Commission policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 3

• Response from the European Commission regarding the policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 4
  

With Franco Frattini's recent threat or promise of a European Union Policy of some sort by this October, we wrote again, asking for an update and about the promised "public" consultation process.

Last week we received a bit more of a reply, (apologies for the delay, but reading the new novel Spook Country by William Gibson took priority), especially as the response was sent as a couple of Adobe .pdf image scans, presumably to discourage any simple cut and paste copying of the text.

Neither the European Commission,nor the UK Home Office seem to aware of, let alone willing to have an informed public debate on the pros and cons of the more subtle idea (or perhaps policy) of "Cyber-Herding" see

Cyber-Herding: Exploiting Islamic Extremists Use of the
Internet (.pdf) by USAF Captain David B. Moon, which does not advocate crude "Great Firewall of Europe" web censorship, and which chimes with some of our ideas on the problem.

Below is the letter from Jonathan Faull the public relations spokesman for Vice President Franco Frattini, claiming "considerable progress" since last August, and a list of Non-Governmental Organisations which have been sent a Questionnaire regarding the "inciting, aiding or abetting terrorist
offences",

See also the next blog posting European Commission - Questionnaire on inciting, aiding or abetting terrorist offences

The Letter:

Continue reading "Update on the European Commission plans for EU wide internet censorship" »

Posted by at 6:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Labour Government seems to be set on its vague plans to try to censor the internet:

Statutory Instrument 2007 No. 1550
The Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007

2007 No. 1550

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS

PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION OF TERRORISM

The Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007

Made 23rd May 2007
Laid before Parliament 31st May 2007
Coming into force 21st June 2007

This complicates the Terrorism Act 2006 sections 1 to 4,

PART 1
OFFENCES
Encouragement etc. of terrorism
Section 1 Encouragement of terrorism
2 Dissemination of terrorist publications
3 Application of ss. 1 and 2 to internet activity etc.
4 Giving of notices under s. 3

with the Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8th June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (Directive on electronic commerce).

This latest bureaucratic red tape issues forth, not from the usual suspects in the Home Office or the Treasury, but from

Margaret Hodge
Minister of State for Industry and the Regions Department of Trade and Industry
23rd May 2007

This threatens any provider of "information society services", either within the European Economic Area (i.e. the European Union plus a few neighbouring countries) , or outside of it, with up to 2 years in prison and / or fines.

There are Exceptions for Acting as a Mere Conduit and for Caching and for Hosting. i.e. almost blanket immunity for Internet Service Providers and Telecommunications companies.

However, there are some obvious questions:

Continue reading "UK Government internet censorship powers - The Electronic Commerce Directive (Terrorism Act 2006) Regulations 2007" »

Posted by at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The fourth and final part of of Questions to and Answers from the European Commission, regarding the apparent policy announcement by Vice President Franco Frattini in London, following the alleged "liquid explosives on airliners" plot arrests in August.

Questions and Answers 10 to 17 (of 17):

Continue reading "European Commission - censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 4" »

Posted by at 6:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Below is the third part of our our Questions to and Answers from the European Commission regarding the apparent policy of censoring "terrorist" websites, announced by Franco Frattini.

Questions and Answers 5 to 9 (of 17):

Continue reading "European Commission "policy" of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 3" »

Posted by at 6:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Part 2 of our letter and response from the European Commission, regarding the apparent policy of censoring "terrorist" websites.

Questions and Answers 1 to 4 (of 17):

Continue reading "European Commission policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 2" »

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Now that most of last week's website hosting problems have been sorted out, with the new SpyBlog.org.uk domain name pointing to webspace hosted outside of the European Union, we can try to catch up with things we wanted to write about last week.

We received a paper snail mail letter from the European Commission in reply to our letter asking for clarification of comments made by Vice President of the European Commission Franco Frattini, back during the "Critical Alert" hype in August, regarding plans to "ban websites" etc.

EU terrorist intelligence sharing and website censorship soundbites from John Reid and Franco Frattini,

Are there any mainstream media journalists or British politicians following up this story ?

Below is the first part of our letter to Franco Frattini, and the preliminary, general answer, by Jonathan Faull the Director General for Justice, Freedom and Security of the European Commission.

See subsequent blog postings for Questions and Answers numbers 1 to 17 :

Vice President Franco Frattini
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
B-1049 BRUSSELS

copy via email to:
franco.frattini@ec.europa.eu
cc: friso.roscam-abbing@ec.europa.eu

24th August 2006

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you to seek clarification of your remarks about "banning websites" at the press conference after the Informal Meeting of some EU Justice Ministers, at the Home Office in London, on the 16th August 2006.

Mention was made (perhaps by United Kingdom Home Secretary John Reid) of an EU policy objective to "make the internet a hostile place for terrorists". You talked of plans to "ban websites" which contain "bomb making instructions" or which "incite terrorism".

What exactly are you proposing ?

EUROPEAN COMMISSION DIRECTORATE -GENERAL, JUSTICE, FREEDOM AND SECURITY

Director General

Commission europeane, B-1049-Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049-Brussel - Belgium. Telephone (32-2) 299 11 11
Office: LX 46 06/105. Telephone direct line (32-2) 298 67 62. Fax: (32-2) 296 76 16

N.B. No email addresses or websites on this letter !

Brussesls, 28 Sep 2006
JLS D/1/CGS/vdb D(2006) 12264

[address]

Dear Mr [xxx]

I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 24 August addressed to Vice-President Frattini.

Given the content of your letter, Vice-President asked me to answer your questions.

Please, find below the answer to your general preliminary as well as to the rest of the questions 1 to 17.

Continue reading "Response from the European Commission regarding the policy of censoring "terrorist" web sites - part 1" »

Posted by at 5:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Yesterday's "must be seen to be doing something" meeting of some, but not all, European Union interior / justice/ police Ministers with our own Home Secretary John Reid at the Home Office in Marsham Street London, produced some worrying "must get tough" soundbites in place of detailed, well thought out, practical policies against the underlying causes of terrorism.

Why is there any need whatsoever for "more cooperation" and "more sharing of intelligence" across the European Union ?

Is John Reid making another "not fit for purpose" attack on civil servants and institutions for which he is wholly are partially responsible for ?

• Europol - "European Law Enforcement Organisation which aims at improving the effectiveness and co-operation of the competent authorities in the Member States in preventing and combating terrorism, unlawful drug trafficking and other serious forms of international organised crime."

• Eurojust - established "to enhance the effectiveness of the competent authorities within Member States when they are dealing with the investigation and prosecution of serious cross-border and organised crime".

• SitCen -" the European Union Joint Situation Centre - "monitors and assesses events and situations worldwide on a 24-hour basis with a focus on potential crisis regions, terrorism and WMD-proliferation. The SitCen also provides support to the EU High Representative, Special Representatives and other senior officials, as well as for EU crisis management operations."

• EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator - Gijs de Vries

• FRONTEX - European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union
  

This was all meant to have been sorted out after the Madrid bombings in March 2004, and then again after the London bombings in July 2005, so why is there any need to call for this "intelligence sharing" to be happening yet again in August 2006 ?

According to the New York Times, the country which refuses to promptly share such terrorist intelligence the most is Britain.

Will bureaucratic heads roll and will these EU organisations, and national intelligence and police authorities be forced to get their acts together ?

Or are these agencies all actually cooperating very well, but the politicians were just uttering soundbites and hand waving, at an uncritical press conference ?

Continue reading "EU terrorist intelligence sharing and website censorship soundbites from John Reid and Franco Frattini" »

Posted by at 5:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)