Sarkozy proposes censorship of terrorist websites after Toulouse shooting

By Aurelien Breeden

 

In the aftermath of the shootings in Montauban and Toulouse, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that the government wanted to make visiting websites that promote terrorism, hate or violence a crime. Skip to the 2 minute mark in the video below to see the announcement. The video is in French but I have translated his statement below.

 

From now now, any person who regularly consults web sites that glorify terrorism or that call for hate or violence will be penally punished.

 

 

 

 

French tech website PC Inpact noted that the proposal would extend the breadth of an existing law against pedophilia and pedo-pornography online. But Sarkozy’s remarks provoked an immediate backlash online, where many criticized the proposal as an inefficient short-term reaction to the tragic events in Toulouse. Web users called out the measure for what it really was, i.e. censorship.

 

(So Sarkozy’s platform is really 1984, in reference to George Orwell’s novel)

 

After Marine Le Pen last week, Sarkozy has therefore decided that censorship was the best tool to fight against an undesired phenomenon (pornography in her case, terrorism in his). But even without considering the dangers of his proposal – unprecedented State power to determine what constitutes terrorism or what is potentially violent – the measure has many practical faults.

 

First, although the legal framework would make it possible, it would be technically difficult to implement such a measure given the complexities of the world wide web today (proxies, for instance, is an easy counter measure). Even the identification of the Toulouse shooter through an IP address took longer than one would think. Only a so-called Deep Packet Inspection would enable to effectively monitor connections, but at an unacceptable price for civil liberties.

 

Another difficulty is that would-be terrorists are not the only ones that consult the targeted websites: sociologists, journalists, historians and other professionals or scholars do to.

 

 

Giving these professional categories an ‘authorization’ to browse terrorist websites is not a solution either. If  a journalist can consult a website for his work, why shouldn’t a normal citizen be able to if he wants to inform himself? Sarkozy’s proposal mere hours after the shooter’s death also begs the question: does he really think keeping individuals like Mohamed Merah from visiting terrorist websites will prevent them from murdering people?

 

 

Finally, even if such a law were to pass (Sarkozy backtracked on his calendar and has now postponed the decision to after the elections), it would be struck down by the European Human Rights Court or by the Conseil Constitutionnel, which have both proven their aptitude at defending civil liberties.

 

To sum up, Sarkozy’s proposal is as hasty as useless as was Laure Manadou’s Twitter comment after the shooting in Toulouse.

 

(Remove those stupid video games and things will be better!)

 

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