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| Europe |
| EU to ban websites teaching bomb making (if it's good enough for China...) |
| 2007-07-04 |
| Placing instructions on how to make a bomb on the internet will become a criminal offence across Europe under plans outlined by Brussels yesterday. Arguments about freedom of expression will not be allowed to stand in the way of criminalising the publication of bomb-making information that could be used by terrorists, a senior EU official said. It will be part of a range of antiterrorist proposals to be published in the autumn that will also include the collection of airline passenger data from every flight in and out of the EU. The extension of measures was promised yesterday by Franco Frattini, the EU Justice Commissioner, after the British car bomb plot and the murder of Spanish tourists in Yemen. Internet service providers (ISPs) would face charges if they failed to block websites containing bomb-making instructions generated anywhere in the world, EU officials said. EU officials denied that it would be impossible to track down websites based in remote places, insisting that the local provider based in the EU could be held to account. One said: “You always need a provider here that gives you access to websites. They can decide technically which websites to allow. Otherwise how would China block internet sites? There are no technological obstacles, only legal ones.” The EU package will also include preparations for bioterrorism attacks and a European rapid-alert system for lost or stolen explosives. Mr Frattini added that a transatlantic passenger name record-sharing agreement between the EU and US completed last week should lead to the EU setting up its own system. This would require airlines to submit certain data such as passport and credit card details which could be used by national security agencies. The US can keep the data for 15 years but after the first seven it becomes “dormant” and can only be accessed case by case. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 > Internet service providers (ISPs) would face charges if they failed to block websites Content censoring? I wonder when anti-EU facts will start to to be banned. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2007-07-04 17:30 |