Europe's quixotic plan to "clean" the Internet of terrorists

Europe's quixotic plan to "clean" the Internet of terrorists.

Note: This article discusses the limits of speech.

-- Tom

 

I don't see nothing worrying here.

But even if there was, Europe right now is all about Quixotic plans; we all know how that ends.


Disclaimer This post was written by an European with tears in his eyes.

 

I think people should focus less on speech (and on limiting the freedom of speech) and be more careful about dangerous actions. Sure, we can take down a hate-speech site very easily and then be happy with ourselves, but it's much harder to actually stop the violence from an extremist organization.

 

I've never quite understood the "hate speech" laws in Europe. But I'm in the United States where you'll find sites like SBPDL hosted by Google's Blogger and many similar sites (sometimes reversed) on wordpress.com. There just isn't the need to force uniformity of thought. We've got many, many problems in the USA, but freedom of speech isn't one of them. Really, the biggest problem in legislating "hate" is that "hate" is something that is one thing today, but tomorrow could include (for instance) an historical revelation or even a scientific fact that is simply inconvenient/uncomfortable to discuss in the public square.

It's a fascinating topic, but I'd rather err on the side of freedom than the state deciding what is legal, and not legal, expression by individuals. A slippery slope indeed.

Throttling speech on the Internet is shutting down the last bastion of freedom as we know it. For what good is free speech if only the wealthy own the means to express it? The Internet is the great leveler.

~

 

Not surprising, since the free speech can shade a light on who the real terrorists are. Speech is just a speech, you can either listen to it or ignore it, but the actions are what is really worrying me.