Source: Electronic Frontier FoundationNatalie Nicol
In a report
published last week, members of the United Kingdom Parliament concluded
that the Internet plays a major role in the radicalization of
terrorists and called on the government to pressure Internet Service
Providers in Britain and abroad to censor online speech. The Roots of Violent Radicalisation places the Internet ahead of prisons, universities, and religious establishments in propagating radical beliefs and ultimately recommends that the government “develop a code of practice for the removal of material which promotes violent extremism” binding ISPs.
While the Terrorism Act 2006 authorizes
British law enforcement agencies to order certain material to be removed
from websites, lawmakers on the Home Affairs Committee stated that
“service providers themselves should be more active in monitoring the
material they host.” Their report raises serious concerns that political
and religious speech will be suppressed. Security expert Peter Neumann who testified before the Committee
asked why websites like YouTube and Facebook can’t be as “effective at
removing . . . extremist Islamist or extremist right-wing content” as
they are at removing sexually explicit content or copyrighted material
that violates their own terms of service.
Citing “persuasive evidence about the
potential threat from extreme far-right terrorism” and lauding the
recent conviction of four London men who used the Internet to plot a
bombing of the London Stock Exchange, Parliament Members commended the report
saying, “[it] tackles the threat from home-grown terrorism on and off
line.” A spokesman for the House of Commons Home Office stated that the
Committee would continue to “work closely with police and internet
service providers to take Internet hate off the web."
In an interview with the International Business Times,
Trend Micro security director Rik Ferguson criticized the Committee’s
recommendations and argued that making ISPs “judge, jury and
executioner” imposes responsibilities on ISPs that rightfully belong to
law enforcement. “Material of a political or religious nature is by
definition much more difficult to define and much more difficult to
police without crossing the line to impact on freedom of expression,”
Ferguson stated.
The Committee issued its recommendations in the midst of reports that Google India had taken down online content deemed offensive to Indian political and religious leaders in response to a lawsuit. The Washington Post points out that Google Transparency Reports indicate that the UK removed nearly as much content as India from January to June 2011. Google complied with more than 80% of requests from the UK to remove content from its services.
EFF believes that it is not the role of
intermediaries to serve as gatekeepers for law enforcement. Fortunately,
we're not alone: the UK's Internet Service Providers' Association
argues that "ISPs are not best placed to determine what constitutes
violent extremism and where the line should be drawn. This is
particularly true of a sensitive area like radicalisation, with
differing views on what may constitute violent extremist." Indeed--the
strategy set forth by the Committee defines extremism as "vocal or
active opposition to fundamental British values." ISPs and other
intermediaries must not be charged with determining what constitutes
extremism, particularly when the definition of such is so vague. This
type of state-mandated online censorship is inherently corruptible,
especially when it is justified to combat national security threats.
