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Deutsch: O2 Ireland sperrt harmlose Webseiten

The Irish mobile operator O2 has acknowledged accidentally blocking the image hosting website IMGUR through its system for blocking alleged child abuse material. There appears to have been no indication that there was, in fact, any illegal material hosted on that site. Furthermore, it is not obvious on what basis O2 could have made the decision to undertake the blocking.

In a statement provided to the Irish hotline, which was not published but simply made available to people who enquired about the problem, O2 explained that "the technology behind the service (to block child abuse images) is more far reaching than anticipated and on occasion a site which should not be blocked may be." It is impossible to tell how many other innocent, but smaller and therefore less noticeable, websites are similarly blocked by accident, due to this "far reaching technology."

O2 undertakes its blocking system on a voluntary basis, despite the fact that, according to the European Commission, "such measures must indeed be subject to law, or they are illegal"(according to the Commission's impact assessment on the draft Directive on child exploitation). Nonetheless, the European Commission is also now supporting such extra-judicial measures and it is now also proposing to use taxpayers' money to fund them.

A six million euro call for proposals launched in June 2010 refers to funding for "blocking access to child pornography OR blocking the access to illegal Internet content through public-private cooperation". This call, by the Commission, for "self-regulatory" blocking of allegedly illegal content in general was made just a few weeks after Commissioner Malmström explained at a conference that "the Commission has absolutely no plans to propose blocking of other types of content - and I would personally very strongly oppose any such idea".

It is likely that further deliberate and accidental blocking of websites will now spread in Ireland, due to the fact that the Irish former monopoly Eircom agreed to block sites accused of containing unauthorised material, while mobile operator Vodafone has reportedly also indicated that it will introduce extra-judicial measures against any of its customers repeatedly accused of infringements.

Many blogs and online message boards accused the Irish Internet hotline of having prepared a faulty blocking list and this was what led to IMGUR being blocked. As the Irish internet hotline does not prepare a blocking list, but simply acts in its capacity as a hotline, these allegations were incorrect.

Commission impact assessment - Accompanying document to the Proposal for a Council Framework Decision on combating the sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography, repealing Framework Decision 2004/68/JHA - Impact assessment {COM(2009) 135} {SEC(2009) 356 (25.03.2010)
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:52009SC035...

Irish Internet hotline
http://www.hotline.ie

Vodafone in line to join file-sharing clampdown (16.06.2010)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0616/1224272615990.ht...

European Commission call for proposals: "Prevention of and fight against crime"
http://ec.europa.eu/justice_home/funding/isec/doc/tc2_call_2010_en.pdf

Commissioner Malmström speech: "Combating sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography: the Commission's proposed Directive" (6.05.2010)
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/archive/Speech%20%2...

FOI shows Department of Justice planning internet blocking for Ireland (16.04.2010)
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2010/04/16/foi-shows-department-of-justice...

Internet Filtering in Ireland: More Information from the Seanad (1.06.2010)
http://www.digitalrights.ie/2010/06/01/internet-filtering-in-ireland-m...

(Contribution by Joe McNamee - EDRi)