EDRI - Internet Blocking

ECJ Advocate General: Forcing ISPs to block websites could be legal

bogdan — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 18:30:29 +0000

The Austrian Supreme Court has sent a request to the European Court of Justice to clarify whether an ISP providing Internet access to those using an alleged illegal website was to be considered as an intermediary.

Paris court orders search engines and ISPs to block websites

bogdan — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 18:27:51 +0000

In a case dating back from December 2011, brought to court by the French Association of Cinema Producers, a group representing more than 120 companies including Paramount and Sony, together with other film industry organisations, the High Court of Paris has decided, on 28 November 2013, to order Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to completely de-list 16 video streaming sites from their search results.

The complaint targeted 16 domains connected to the popular Allostreaming, Fifostream and DPstream video portals and had previously received emergency interim measures.

Search engines pushed to inefficient Internet filtering

bogdan — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 18:28:44 +0000

The UK government continues its endeavours to censor the Internet and has succeeded in convincing search engines to filter search term results “associated” with child abuse images within its child abuse policy, despite the lack of proof of any efficiency of such measures, the rinks to abuses and the dangers to the citizens’ democratic rights.

The Russian website blacklist shows its limits

bogdan — Wed, 25 Sep 2013 18:13:04 +0000

Russia has operated since 2012 a national blacklist of sites that allegedly do not comply with the law. The website blacklist currently includes hundreds of websites, from those promoting drug taking and suicide to those offering child pornography, but also sites that infringe the anti-piracy law. All these websites are to be blocked at the ISP level. Moreover, the legislation allows the blocking of sites that only link to infringing content if they do not take action within 72 hours of a complaint.

On 19 September 2013, telecoms watchdog Roskomnadzor said that Facebook has been provisionally put on a list of banned Internet sites and asked to remove controversial content within three days.

ENDitorial: EU Parliament wastes time and money on gambling? You bet!

bogdan — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 20:20:38 +0000

On 17 February 2009, it also adopted a non-binding resolution on the same subject. On 14 October 2011, it adopted another non-binding resolution on the same subject. Most recently, on 10 September 2013, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution on online gambling.

Each time the Internal Market and Consumer Committee (IMCO) has decided to undertake such a report, it has given responsibility for the dossier to a different Parliamentarian from a different political group.

The Finnish Supreme court rules on blocking anti-censorship site

bogdan — Wed, 28 Aug 2013 21:50:44 +0000

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Finnland: Entscheidung über die Zensur einer Anti-Zensur-Website

On 26 August 2013, the Finnish Supreme Court ruled it was legal to censor a website listing domain names of sites that are currently blocked even if the site itself doesn’t host or link to illegal content.

The ruling comes in the case of Matti Nikki’s website lapsiporno.info which was added by the Finnish police on the list of websites to be filtered because it exposed the blocked links. Matti challenged the decision in court and in 2011 a Helsinki court ruled that his site should not be blocked.

British Conservative's report demands long list of EU actions on gambling, including web blocking

joe — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 11:32:30 +0000

The European Parliament has a committee dedicated to enhancing the European single market and consumer protection. This is a good thing. Imagine how such a committee would react to an industry that is hampered by protectionism, national monopolies and the blocking of foreign services that offer better value for money. Well, you don't have to imagine, because the so-called IMCO Committee recently adopted a report on Online Gambling (PDF). The result should be great, right? Unfortunately not.

ENDitorial: #ResistSocialMedia in Turkey

bogdan — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 16:17:48 +0000

The wave of resistance that started at Gezi Park on the 29 May 2013 in Istanbul and has since spread all over Turkey once again revealed a deep connection between real time communication on social media and social movements. Throughout the protests, social media platforms have become the primary news source in this environment where the mainstream media have proven themselves to be the site of disinformation or inertia.

Turkish demonstrations using social media despite censorship

bogdan — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 17:59:26 +0000

In other times, events as those taking place in Turkey now would have probably been much unknown to the rest of the world. But, over the past several years, social media has developed spectacularly and with it, its role in promoting, organizing and responding to protest and revolution.

The protests taking place in Turkey, organized initially in response to government plans to build a new mall on a green space in the centre, have turned into a demonstration against the government’s policies.

The fight between the Turkish government and the demonstrating citizens has not taken place only in the streets but also in the social media. A huge amount of tweets mentioning hashtags related to the protest have been sent.

SIF Unconference: Enforcement through "self-"Regulation - who ever thought this was a good idea?

joe — Mon, 27 May 2013 14:36:38 +0000

Last week, European Digital Rights attended the second annual Stockholm Internet Forum which focused on two main themes: Internet Freedom and Security and Internet Freedom and Development. A novelty this year were the Unconference sessions.