{"id":139246,"date":"2014-09-12T22:12:45","date_gmt":"2014-09-12T22:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=139246"},"modified":"2014-09-12T22:12:45","modified_gmt":"2014-09-12T22:12:45","slug":"proposed-anti-terror-law-france-erode-civil-liberties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/proposed-anti-terror-law-france-erode-civil-liberties\/","title":{"rendered":"Proposed Anti-Terror Law in France Would Erode Civil Liberties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>JILLIAN YORK<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">A proposed anti-terrorism law in France has freedom of expression advocates concerned. \u00a0The bill, as our friends at La Quadrature du Net <a href=\"http:\/\/www.laquadrature.net\/en\/frances-new-anti-terror-bill-all-presumed-terrorist-until-proven-guilty\">frame it<\/a>, \u201cinstitutes a permanent state of emergency on the Internet,\u201d providing for harsher penalties for incitement or \u201cglorification\u201d of terrorism conducted online. \u00a0Furthermore, the bill (in Article 9) allows for \u201cthe possibility for the administrative authority to require Internet service providers to block access to sites inciting or apologizing for terrorism\u201d without distinguishing criteria or an authority to conduct the blocking.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Apart from specific concerns that the bill treats online speech as distinct from other speech, other provisions are just as problematic. For example, while Article 4 refers to \u201cprovocation aux actes de terrorisme\u201d or \u201cincitement to terrorism\u201d\u2013a clearly defined legal concept\u2013it also refers to \u201capologie du terrorisme\u201d or \u201capologizing\u201d or \u201cglorifying\u201d terrorism, implying a condemnation of opinions alone rather than any overt acts, as Reporters Without Borders<a href=\"http:\/\/fr.rsf.org\/france-la-liberte-d-information-menacee-18-07-2014,46659.html\">points out<\/a>. \u00a0La Quadrature du Net\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/presumes-terroristes.fr\/\">mini-site<\/a> on the bill addresses further concerns (in French).<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Anti-terror laws have been used in various countries around the world to prosecute individuals for their speech about unpopular ideas. In the United States, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/177750\/how-tarek-mehanna-went-prison-thought-crime\">prosecution of Tarek Mehanna<\/a>\u2013a young Muslim who translated and posted material referred to by prosecutors as \u201cAl Qaeda propaganda\u201d\u2013involved the use of conspiracy and so-called \u201cmaterial support\u201d laws. In Ethiopia, anti-terror laws have been used to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2012\/07\/conviction-eskinder-nega-ethiopia\">silence journalists<\/a> and are currently being used to<a href=\"http:\/\/advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org\/2014\/07\/31\/the-zone-9-bloggers-are-writing-from-the-outer-ring-of-the-prison-the-nation-itself\/\">prosecute the dissident Zone9 Bloggers<\/a>. And the list goes on.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">France\u2019s attempt to \u201ccleanse\u201d the Internet of terrorist content isn\u2019t a first in the EU either. In 2012, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2012\/09\/cleansing-internet-terrorism-leaked-eu-proposal-would-erode-civil-liberties\">leaked document showed<\/a> that the European Commission sought to make use of private Internet companies to remove terrorist content, without oversight or accountability.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">While terrorism itself is a serious concern, it is far too often invoked as the justification for a broader clamp down on civil liberties. We support La Quadrature du Net in opposing this dangerous bill and encourage our French readers to check out their <a href=\"https:\/\/presumes-terroristes.fr\/\">mini-site<\/a> for information on the bill and how to fight back against it.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eff.org\/deeplinks\/2014\/09\/proposed-anti-terror-law-france-would-erode-civil-liberties\" target=\"_blank\">This piece<\/a> was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\" target=\"_blank\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>JILLIAN YORK A proposed anti-terrorism law in France has freedom of expression advocates concerned. \u00a0The bill, as our friends at La Quadrature du Net frame it, \u201cinstitutes a permanent state of emergency on the Internet,\u201d providing for harsher penalties for incitement or \u201cglorification\u201d of terrorism conducted online. \u00a0Furthermore, the bill (in Article 9) allows for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1614],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-139246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-surveillance-big-brother"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}