EU Officials Propose Internet Cops On Patrol, No Anonymity & No Obscure Languages (Because Terrorism!)

from the even-worse-than-we-thought dept

Back in February we wrote about the ominously-named "Clean IT" project in Europe, designed to combat the use of the Internet by terrorists. At that time, we suspected that this would produce some seriously bad ideas, but a leaked document obtained by EDRI shows that these are actually much worse than feared (pdf), amounting to a system of continuous surveillance, extrajudicial removal of content and some new proposals that can only be described as deranged.

Here's EDRI's summary of the central issue:

The leaked document contradicts a letter sent from CleanIT Coordinator But Klaasen to Dutch NGO Bits of Freedom in April of this year, which explained that the project would first identify problems before making policy proposals. The promise to defend the rule of law has been abandoned. There appears never to have been a plan to identify a specific problem to be solved – instead the initiative has become little more than a protection racket (use filtering or be held liable for terrorist offences) for the online security industry.
Instead of tackling concrete problems, the vague threat of "terrorism" is constantly invoked -- without ever defining what that means -- to justify a range of extreme measures. At the heart of the plans lies the "voluntarism" we discussed a few weeks ago:
Governments should stimulate self-regulation by Internet companies
And where there are laws, it must be OK for law enforcement agencies (LEAs) to ignore them and have content taken down on demand:
It must be legal for LEAs to make Internet companies aware of terrorist content on their infrastructure ('flagging') that should be removed, without following the more labour intensive and formal procedures for 'notice and take action'
Due process, who needs it? The plans also require some interesting new laws, like this one criminalizing merely posting certain hyperlinks:
Knowingly providing hyperlinks on websites to terrorist content must be defined by law as illegal just like the terrorist content itself
Here's another proposal -- no more anonymity online:
Internet companies must allow only real, common names. These must be entered when registering.
So what happens if you have an uncommon name? And then there's this:
Social media companies must allow only real pictures of users
Presumably you're not allowed to smile, either. Talking of social media, the Clean IT plans include the introduction of friendly "virtual police officers", constantly spying on, er, watching over Europeans online:
Virtual police officers must be used to show law enforcement is present, is watchful, in order to prevent terrorist use of the Internet and make regular users feel more secure.
The idea is that "virtual police officers" will be keeping an eye on you -- for your own safety, you understand. Other ways in which users will be protected from themselves is through the use of filters:
All kinds of Internet companies, LEAs and NGOs, but not governments, should promote the use of end-user controlled filters among their clients, the public and supporters
Note that "not governments" part -- people mustn't get the idea that this is censorship, oh no. Also required will be automated detection systems, because we know how well they work:
Automated detection systems must be used by LEAs, NGOs and Internet companies.
Among the even more interesting proposals in the leaked document seems to be the idea that the authorities can order encryption to be turned off, presumably to allow eavesdropping:
In some cases notice and take action procedures must lead to security certificates of sites to be downgraded.
But surely the most bizarre proposal for dealing with "abuse" -- an attempt to dress up as lamb the tired old mutton of "terrorism" -- is the following:
The use of platforms in languages abuse specialists or abuse systems do not master should be unacceptable and preferably technically impossible.
Incredible though it might sound, that seems to suggest that less common foreign languages would be banned from the European Internet entirely in case anybody discusses naughty stuff without the authorities being able to spy on them (haven't they heard of Google Translate?) You could hardly hope for a better symbol of the paranoid and xenophobic thinking that lies behind this crazy scheme.

Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+

Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: anonymity, anti-terrorism, eu, internet police, languages, privacy


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Ninja (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 9:26am

    Glyn? Are you quoting parts of "1984" Glyn?

    Some1 has to tell our beloved politicians that we don't mind a small risk of being blown up by some unknown entity. You know, much like we use airplanes even though there's a slight chance it'll fall.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 2:32pm

      1984

      "Thought Police" with their boot stomping on a human face -- forever."

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Gubatron, 23 Sep 2012 @ 4:51am

      Re:

      I also thought of 1984 as I read the quotes.

      For some reason I think this is written by very old people that really have no clue of how the internet works and the impossibility of what they ask, or by young conservative morons.

      Why does the world have people like this?
      Can't wait to move to another planet with no morons allowed.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2012 @ 8:26am

        Re: Re:

        That planet would obviously be deemed a safe haven for terrorists and thus a "rogue" planet.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    arcan, 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:38am

    YAY for being able to speak and write esperanto. *hears police sirens* OH F*** RUN AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:44am

    Dear Thought Police,

    Airport, bomb, muhammed,Iran, underwear, TSA, Obama, gold, 9/11, assassination, attack, cops, homeland security, militia, hostage, threat, bridge, terror, Afghanistan, Pakistan, suicide bomber, pirates, Yemen, nationalist, rootkit

    Have fun guys...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:00am

      Coward!

      Airport, bomb, muhammed,Iran, underwear, TSA, Obama, gold, 9/11, assassination, attack, cops, homeland security, militia, hostage, threat, bridge, terror, Afghanistan, Pakistan, suicide bomber, pirates, Yemen, nationalist, rootkit

      Good grief! How could leave this off your list:

      mp3


      ???

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:06am

        Re: Coward!

        You forgot


        torrent, download, free, dvdrip

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Zakida Paul (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:09am

        Re: Coward!

        Hello GCHQ

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:13am

        Re: Coward!

        p2p
        weapons of mass destruction

        err. scratch that last one, there were none.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:27am

          Re: Re: Coward!

          weapons of mass destruction

          err. scratch that last one, there were none.


          Yup. Just words of mass distraction. Bush 43 and his puppet masters still gave a lot of crimes to answer for.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:53am

            Re: Re: Re: Coward!

            one word to rule them all
            and in carceration, bind you

            Free

            link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:33pm

        Re: Coward!

        Jihad, Child pornography, radicalism, Anonymous, 1984, Chinese takeover of America, cyber-jihad, cyber-terrorism, cyber-radicalism, cyber-cyber, cyber-pirates, ummm... and cyber-hatchets.

        Have we gotten everything yet?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      gorehound (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 12:10pm

      Re: Dear Thought Police,

      Terror, assassinate, assassination, bombing, explosives, home-made explosive, cop killing, kill all senators, blow up the white house.............
      Thought Police Number Two poster.Continuing the fun.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Zakida Paul (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:46am

    I am quoting Mark Twain a lot, today. Here goes again

    Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often, and for the same reason.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:48am

    'You could hardly hope for a better symbol of the paranoid and xenophobic thinking that lies behind this crazy scheme.'

    and where does this come from? as horrendous as 9/11 was, as horrendous as the UK tube and bus bombings were, this paranoia has stemmed from the US. members of the government and law enforcement are making the anti-terrorism measures produce worse results than the terrorist acts themselves. everyone is so concerned with stopping something bad from happening, they are doing exactly what the terrorists want, removing freedoms, human rights and constantly spying on all citizens regardless of whether there is cause to or not. ridiculous!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      terry (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:54am

      Re:

      And it has been has been working as designed, for the removal of freedoms to get ever closer to the goal by those who lust for total micromanagement control of every single person.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      G Thompson (profile), 22 Sep 2012 @ 12:18am

      Re:

      Terrorists: Giving our governments the power they have been wanting ever since the Renaissance

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2012 @ 4:00pm

      Re:

      Nope. These ideas he are just that: Ideas. If the commission thinks any of them are worth anything they might try to use them in the upcoming anti internet terror laws coming up, but they have enough other projects on the exact same subject, without public input they have spend much more money so I am pretty sure that will not happen.

      There has already been some followup tweeting between OP and the leader of the project:
      http://95.211.138.23/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/tweetdiscussion-moody_klaasen_20120923.pdf

      In short:

      The project is low budget and cannot affort many large meetings for discussion.

      The project takes in any ideas they can get and they do not filter!

      The projects goal is not to create laws but to force some cooperative efforts between public and private to fight "terrorism" on the internet.

      For some reason the participating organisations do not want their names made public...

      Klaasen makes it clear that "security" is a concern in this project and there is a need for confidentiality. (Why? As far as I can see, the big "security" problem is about attendants not wanting to be known to the rest of the participants, "the public". With the relatively limited interest for the project, I can see the issue, but hiding it behind "security" instead of calling it "anonymity" is dishonest imo.)

      To understand the real problem of the project, you should read the projects own homepage since it should be pretty clear that the problem starts at the root:
      http://www.cleanitproject.eu/recent-interviews-with-project-manager/

      Read the french interview (most recent) to really understand the reasons behind the project.

      Some of my favourites include, but are not limited to:
      - The Onions favourite gag called the "deep web" where the criminals go, but someone appearently told him it doesnt exist, so he wanted to reword the "deep web" to "some people are smarter than others" (and that is a surprise for all of us!)!
      - The future coalition between hackers and terrorists.
      - The primary focus is the Jihadists and other groups on EUs terror-list!

      Carry the tinfoil hat with pride!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Glen, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:00am

    It looks like the EU and the US are in a right to trample our freedoms (what few there are left). This is just depressing.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    monkyyy, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:07am

    i still want to know how a law can be voluntary

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Chosen Reject (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:55am

      Re:

      The same way, apparently, the LEAs aren't governments.
      All kinds of Internet companies, LEAs and NGOs, but not governments...
      I mean, what is that even supposed to mean? How many governments have turned the enforcement of their laws over to private entities?

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:15am

    Too big to be real.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:17am

    Wow, This has everything!

    Protecting the children (from terrorism)
    Filtering the internet (but making users pay for it)
    "Report blog/website as terrorist" button
    Blacklist for "Terrorist" websites
    DMCAs for terrorism
    ContentID for terrorism
    Internet (terrorism!) police
    Storing tons personal information in a central database!

    This document is so bipolar. It looks like one or two people with good ideas managed to sneak a few lines onto the censorship wish-list.

    Half the lines say "don't block anything" and the other half say "block everything."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Jay (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:19am

    Instead of tackling concrete problems, the vague threat of "terrorism" is constantly invoked -- without ever defining what that means -- to justify a range of extreme measures.

    The reason no government will ever define terrorism is because they would be the first ones locked up by inducing Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear on the populace.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:20am

    We're in desperate need of virtual police in first person shooters. Somebody kills my character every damn time I log in. Take these virtual murderers away in virtual cuffs.

    /sarcasm

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:35am

    Q.And what glorious communication technique did Bin Laden use?
    A. Thumb Drives by sneaker net.

    With respect to terrorist material :-
    Marielle Gallo who chaired one of the committees, and supports the treaty, made some interesting comments over this :-
    "We're supposed to represent citizens, but since they are busy with other things, we are supposed to think for them!"
    and
    "It's not only a disinformation campaign. It's a soft form of terrorism that frightens people. People are being scared. It's a fantasy. ACTA has become a fantasy. And that, that's propagated by the whole Internet network."

    It is a catch all for censorship.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    terry (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:42am

    What specifically is this "terrorism"?

    What is terrorism over the internet? Is it sending all black pages to an Internet connected printer?

    I guess I better abandon plans to be placing E-Bombs or were they F-Bombs online?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:42pm

      Re: What specifically is this "terrorism"?

      I have a great idea! i'll fax a bomb! no one will suspect it!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:42pm

      Re: What specifically is this "terrorism"?

      I have a great idea! i'll fax a bomb! no one will suspect it!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:43pm

        Re: Re: What specifically is this "terrorism"?

        damn, double posted :[

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2012 @ 9:54am

          Re: Re: Re: What specifically is this "terrorism"?

          I find I often doublepost from my Galaxy Tab, no matter how carefully I post.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:45am

    Just outlaw computers.

    Then the world will be safe.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    abc gum, 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:46am

    Clean IT ... sounds like China IT

    Clearly, outsourcing has gone too far this time.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 11:50am

    Free association.. no not like that!

    "Clean IT" project in Europe
    At risk of Godwinning, is it just my brain that reads that as "clean = 'Pure'" and makes it sound suspiciously master-race-ish?
    The use of platforms in languages abuse specialists or abuse systems do not master should be unacceptable and preferably technically impossible.
    So the internet, platform of inclusion and bringing the whole world together into some sort of community, is now the platform of "Us and them and f*ck off if you're different"? Yay

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 21 Sep 2012 @ 12:13pm

      Re: Free association.. no not like that!

      One might wonder how many different languages their "Utopia_Net" might allow ... for example, would it allow Perl, C, Java ????

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Not an Electronic Rodent (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 12:20pm

        Re: Re: Free association.. no not like that!

        Does that make Cobol the equivalent of Attic Greek?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2012 @ 8:04am

          Re: Re: Re: Free association.. no not like that!

          No, I think it would be basement greek.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    AdamF (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 12:09pm

    Definition of terrorism

    "Instead of tackling concrete problems, the vague threat of "terrorism" is constantly invoked -- without ever defining what that means"

    Nope, it appears to be defined very clearly. Check out first paragraph of "draft document": http://www.cleanitproject.eu/documents/

    "The EU has defined terrorist offences as ‘intentional acts which ... may seriously damage ... an international organization where committed with the aim of ... seriously destabilizing ... the fundamental ... economic [structure] of ... an international organization” (EU FD, 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism).

    Well, there go technological disruptions - stone age, here we come. The worst thing is, they are not even misquoting the original document, just leaving out a few points:
    http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32002F0475:EN:HTML

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 12:33pm

      Re: Definition of terrorism

      Another way of saying that: Terrorists include people who are actively working in peaceful ways to improve things for people in ways that may disadvantage international organizations.

      It appears that we're all terrorists now.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 1:01pm

      Re: Definition of terrorism

      So by effectively defining almost every European a terrorist they don't need to go the FBI's route of having to create and expose their own terror plots. They can just round up anyone they want when they want to show how awesome they are at exposing terror plots.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      abc gum, 21 Sep 2012 @ 1:19pm

      Re: Definition of terrorism

      Limited to international acts?

      I thought it had been agreed that domestic terrorism is real, huh - oh well. Guess this means only foreigners will be subjected to anal probes.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      arcan, 21 Sep 2012 @ 2:01pm

      Re: Definition of terrorism

      The European Union (EU) has defined terrorist offences as ‘intentional acts which, given their nature or context, may seriously damage a country or an international organization where committed with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population, or unduly compelling a Government or international organization to perform or abstain from performing any act, or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social structures of a country or an international organization

      tis the whole one. and it looks to me that this program does all of the above... besides maybe political...

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        John Fenderson (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 3:48pm

        Re: Re: Definition of terrorism

        Right, and by this definition every political activist is a terrorist.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    K-2 (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 1:31pm

    'Virtual police officers must be used to show law enforcement is present, is watchful, in order to prevent terrorist use of the Internet and make regular users feel more secure.'

    I think the key word in this piece of text is 'feel'. Make regular users feel more secure as opposed to actually making them more secure.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      John Fenderson (profile), 22 Sep 2012 @ 11:06am

      Re:

      Not only that but I'm at a loss to understand how the presence of virtual police officers would make anyone feel more secure in any case. What would they do? Virtually chase virtual muggers down virtual alleys and get our virtual wallets back?

      The only thing they can do is spy, so I can see how their presence would make a lot of regular users feel much less secure.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Adolf, 21 Sep 2012 @ 1:53pm

    I'm proud of the EU

    Hi this is Adolf. I'm burning in hell right now, but I want to pass on my support for the Clean IT plan. You've taken my master plan and turned it into the Final Solution. On behalf of EU citizens, I thank you from the bottom of my black heart.

    Adolf

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 2:29pm

    this is not enough

    But, but, but...

    Who will protect the children?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 3:08pm

    Perhaps this should be in the yeah-good-luck-with-that dept..

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    crade (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 3:38pm

    Banning communication about terrorist activities from the internet makes about as much sense as banning criminals from telling everyone how and where they will commit crimes over the radio.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    MikeC (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 4:12pm

    Realize who said this

    The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.

    == you really don't want to know ==

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    cosmicrat (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 4:24pm

    In Newspeak

    And the bureau that oversees it all will be called the "Ministry of Freedom". The bureau that imprisons and tortures, err, re-educates violators will be called the "Ministry of Love"

    And EFF and the ACLU will be classified as terrorist organizations because they "economically terrorize" the big labels and studios.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anthony, 21 Sep 2012 @ 4:40pm

    Terrorism?

    I feel threatened by THIS. Clean IT scares me, NOT terrorism. I have never ever, not once, encountered a form of what I would consider to be terrorism in my daily experience of life. At all costs, STOP THIS — Clean IT is terrorism.


    On a less-important side note, where's the punctuation of the italicized statements?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 21 Sep 2012 @ 8:01pm

      Re: Terrorism?

      You have not, because people are fighting them to protect you, if you so hate this , you are free to move to iran

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:38pm

        Re: Re: Terrorism?

        Not meaning to hate on service members and others, as this legislation has nothing to do with them, but there comes a point when the need to fight "terrorism" goes beyond rational and into the realm of 1984...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That One Guy (profile), 22 Sep 2012 @ 1:25am

        Re: Re: Terrorism?

        Sorry, but 'causing more harm to society than a terrorist could ever dream of' does not count as 'fighting' terrorism, unless the idea is to put the terrorists out of business or make them quit in pity.

        Mind, I'm talking about the politicians who are pushing all this 'anti-terrorist' crap that is anything but, I don't blame soldiers for just doing what they're ordered to do unless it's something blatantly illegal/immoral, even if I do think the idea that you can kill a group/mindset that already hates you is an exercise in futility at best.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        John Fenderson (profile), 22 Sep 2012 @ 11:10am

        Re: Re: Terrorism?

        You have not, because people are fighting them to protect you


        Really? That's why? Prove it. Seriously.

        It is being demanded of us that we sacrifice some amount of freedom and security to the state in the name of "protecting against terrorism". I, for one, would like to see some evidence that our sacrifices are responsible for that happening.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2012 @ 12:48pm

        Re: Re: Terrorism?

        You're the same idiot who thinks that filming policemen would bring enforcement efforts to a screeching halt, aren't you?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        orn, 23 Sep 2012 @ 7:55am

        Re: Re: Terrorism?

        I can't tell if you're being sarcastic, but i have to ask: what the hell does Iran have to do with anything?
        The only thing i can think of is the flame virus, which, if anything is a terror attack on Iran.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Watchit (profile), 21 Sep 2012 @ 10:35pm

    Of all the anti-internet legislation I've seen, this is by far the smelliest piece of shit in the pile.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Dave, 22 Sep 2012 @ 2:59am

    Hogwash

    This is not even remotely about "safety" on line. It is all down to controlling the net in the way Big Content have been trying to do for years. I can see the net gradually being dismantled before our eyes, piece by piece, if we don't get people in "power" with some tech-savvy and common sense.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Sep 2012 @ 5:52am

    Idiots

    I don't understand why governments are constantly trying to police the internet instead of seeing it for what it is - a massive data and intelligence gathering tool.

    Get enough bots working on it and they can monitor plenty of terrorist activity.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    manen, 22 Sep 2012 @ 6:04am

    SURPRISED?!?

    f-word, f-word, f-word, f-word, f-word!!!!!

    back to the barricades mates, time to fight the stupidity in Brussels 'ere again!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael, 22 Sep 2012 @ 6:36am

    Umm

    Did I just enter The Twilight Zone?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lennart Regebro, 22 Sep 2012 @ 7:16am

    I'm giving up. I can't deal with it, and there seems to be no way out. Democracy is dead. And no one sees to care.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    George W., 22 Sep 2012 @ 8:49am

    Wow

    Way to kill the internet, freedom, modern society, speech, innovation, happiness, knowledge and humanity.

    All those key words will be filtered in the future.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Larry, 22 Sep 2012 @ 9:42am

    EU Officials - not!

    The headline is misleading. EU officials are not proposing this. Clean IT is just one of a multitude of projects co-funded by a crime prevention programme of the European Commission, but which are designed and carried out by external consortia, see http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/home-affairs/financing/fundings/pdf/isec/2010_fpa_all_awarded.pdf. Any recommendations issued from the project are not per se endorsed by the EU. In this case the project partners are security agencies of a number of EU countries, but the work is probably being done by low- or mid-level staffers and hasn't even been reviewed by their respective ministers. I would be more concerned about the fact that 300000 EUR of European taxpayers' money has been spent on such nonsense.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John, 23 Sep 2012 @ 11:43am

    These people are totally out of touch and shouldn't be allowed to use computers let alone tell others how they should.

    Its like they just copied the 'cleanternet' parody but didn't get the irony.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkmcupFx3FQ

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2012 @ 12:26pm

    So by this definition would Julian Assange be considered a terrorist? Cause I so see them talking it there and everyone that makes a statement about how a government is corrupt and we should protest will be deleted of the internet. Just last week one of our comedians was calling merkel a fat cow, many such comments are bound to be made about her and sarkozy with way things are being handled with the countries that are in the toiled, will those comments be banned? 1984 here we come (we never seen to be too far from it, at any time)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2012 @ 4:17pm

    I dont want to live on this planet anymore!!!

    As they are written as of this article... most of these laws would be:
    1. Completely unenforceable (especially the real pics on social media bit)
    2. Technology is developing so fast that by the time this were to be implemented it would be completely outdated and be about as useful as a tampon in a flood (will only catch only the ignorant and the inept "terrorists"... or angry little kids)
    And on a side note, i keep hearing politicians in america talking about 1984 when the government wants to provide a basic level of medical care for them... -.- i give up... i dont want to live on this planet anymore!!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Sep 2012 @ 4:53pm

    I'm gonna blow up the world!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Sep 2012 @ 7:14pm

    Boy, doesn't this sound just like the Nazis in 1942?

    'nuff said.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    rkr, 25 Sep 2012 @ 10:08pm

    Encryption

    Does this mean all encryption would be illegal too? If talking in obscure languages, etc and having everything open is what they're suggesting, it's only logical that they'd want that too. And to anyone thinking that only the very few will use it, that's essentially what HTTPS is. A whole heap of websites, especially ones where the data is very private, such as banks, use this. Even google searches are done over it now! They can't get at that stuff, nevermind any other methods of encryption done on top of that!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    guest, 26 Sep 2012 @ 11:30am

    Banned encryption?

    So encryption should be made illegal?
    What about PGP/GPG software?
    Should I go to jail for using them?
    In fact terrorists may simply use the steganography to hide their secret evil messages in the "aunt Jane and family" photos :P

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.