Now, let us not ask the wrong question.
The European Parliament is set to vote on legislation that would require websites that host user-generated content to take down material reported as terrorist content within one hour. We have some examples of current notices sent to the Internet Archive that we think illustrate very well why this requirement would be harmful to the free sharing of information and freedom of speech that the European Union pledges to safeguard.
In the past week, the Internet Archive has received a series of email notices from French Internet Referral Unit (French IRU) falsely identifying hundreds of URLs on archive.org as “terrorist propaganda”. At least one of these mistaken URLs was also identified as terrorist content in a separate take down notice sent under the authority of the French government’s L’Office Central de Lutte contre la Criminalité liée aux Technologies de l’Information et de la Communication (OCLCTIC).
More here, but mind the bias.
The question should not be “How did these incompetent jackasses get so many false positives?” (The Internet Archive was bemused to discover that the French consider Project Gutenberg to be ‘terrorist propaganda,’ for example.) The question should also not be “What possessed these provincial idiots to try to shut down an American-based institution that is fully aware that it’s protected by a Constitutional amendment that flat out orders the US government not to assist the EU in enforcing this law?” It’s not even “Who told these benighted fools that they had any business or skill in regulating speech?” No, the question is “Why hasn’t everybody involved been fired yet?”Because that’s how you solve a bureaucratic problem: you fire the bureaucrat who caused it. Works wonders, it does. Note that I am not expecting anybody to solve the problem, of course. Dunno if that’s cynicism or experience talking.
Moe Lane
PS: This isn’t a political post; it’s an anti-stupidity post.
PPS: I don’t really care what their arguments are for auto-censoring foreign content, thanks. Not that my regulars are likely to disagree with any of this, but people reading this later might. Assuming that they can even read it in the first place, given that the European Union apparently has a heavy hand when it comes to keeping its subjects from stuff that might distress them, like a contrary opinion.
PPPS: Let me save some time. In case somebody from the EU ever contacts me to demand that I remove content because of ‘terrorist propaganda,’ please consult the list below for my response.
- Ne.
- Ne.
- Ne.
- Nej.
- Nee.
- No*.
- Ei.
- Ei.
- Non.
- Nein.
- O’hi.
- Nem.
- Ni he.
- No.
- Ne.
- Ne.
- Ebda.
- Nie.
- Nao.
- Nu.
- Nie.
- Ne.
- No.
- Nej.
*Possibly outdated; status currently under review.
Arkell v Pressdram as an appropriate response, in my opinion.
And in mine.
I’m thinking shorter, more succinct, and Anglo-Saxon.
I imagine that the European leaders don’t really care if the US does nothing. For them, it’s a way to persecute websites that they don’t like for whatever reason (I’m not sure why Gutenberg would have drawn their ire, though; the most likely thing that I can think of is an algorithm that spotted a certain word pattern in some old texts on the site). Sure, the website and its creator might be physically located in the US. But pressure can be brought against the company hosting the website (which probably has a European presence), as has already been done by entities within the US against organizations that they didn’t like politically. And the declaration can likely make it possible to arrest the website owner should he or she take a trip to Europe.
My speculation: It seems to me that this may be deliberate and that for whatever reason there might be they really are trying to send a lot of stuff down the memory hole with the concerns for “terrorist propaganda” being merely a pretext. I will note out loud as a matter of current event awareness rather than as politics that the current government of France is Socialist. >_>
HAhahahaha. You expect anyone in the EU Leviathan to get fired? The only way anyone leaves that kind of position is in a hearse or on a pike.
Of course I don’t expect any of them to get fired over this. But they should still be asking the question Why not? 🙂
Disarmed populace, with genetic components of rebellion screened by emigration to the US, and genetic tendencies toward valor culled by two devastating World Wars.
.
Anyway, Big Brother always seeks to control the past. Project Gutenberg is a direct threat to this endeavor. Of course Leviathan is going to come after it.
Personally I think we should just shut off the Internet to Europe (well, all the EU countries) until they figure out that they’ve been bad and to not be dumbasses in the future.
If they don’t figure it out, well, we can get along without them on the Internet better than they can get along without the Internet, so let them feel the pain for as long as it takes.
Gleichschaltung may not be something that can be escaped without more… direct action. *sigh*