[governance] Taking down a site [was: beijing ticket scam]

[Lisa Horner]

Echoing Ian, I wonder if it would be worth filing a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission?  The SA bill of rights states that freedom of expression doesn't extend to "advocacy of hatred that is based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion, and that constitutes incitement to cause harm." Is this supported by any other legislation in SA?

So many of our discussions around internet governance issues can be approached from a rights perspective, but human rights lawyers and institutions are usually absent from the debate.  Human rights and their associated tools and mechanisms are arguably one of the only global governance institutions that is 'thickening' in the current age of 'globalisation'.  Human rights approaches also have an inbuilt framework for balancing out tensions between different rights and responsibilities.  However, there's still a lot of work to be done in bringing them up to date and ensuring that they're capable of dealing with new issues, including those relating to freedom of expression and the internet.  I wonder if engaging directly with national human rights institutions is one way of starting that process?

In a way, this is linked to Anriette's comment that many new campaigns around rights are a-historical.  Similarly, I think that they should be rooted in, or at least have a firm understanding of, existing human rights institutions, both formal and informal and at all scales.  We've just commissioned some research into how policy principles based around notions such as net neutrality, interoperability, universal access and content diversity can be rooted in the international human rights system which will hopefully yield some interesting insights...

Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Lisa 

___________________________________________________________
Lisa Horner
Head of Research and Policy Unit
Global Partners and Associates 
4th Floor Holborn Gate, 26 Southampton Buildings, London, WC2A 1AH
Office: + 44 207 861 3960          Mobile: +44 7867 795859
lisa at global-partners.co.uk  www.global-partners.co.uk 



-----Original Message-----
From: Rui Correia [mailto:correia.rui at gmail.com] 
Sent: 06 August 2008 11:15
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Subject: Re: [governance] Taking down a site [was: beijing ticket scam]

Dear Milton, Ian Peter, Jeffrey and others

I am personally a defender of freedom of expression. However, like any
other right, the right to freedom of expression has limitations, such
as on child pornography incitement to violence etc, which are
considered crimes in most legislatins. Racism too is consided a crime
in many legislations.

The site I am referring too is a  discussion forum with the same name
as a right wing white para-political organisation. It advocates
independence for the Afrikaner and dispalys the flags of the old Boere
republics and the old South African flag as well as other symbols of
Afrikaner nationalism.

The tenor of the discussions is extremely racist, referring to blacks
as "kaffirs" and "baboons"; containg commenst to the effect that
Botswana's economy flourishes only thanks to the whites; suggesting
that "they" to do not try "here" (South Africa) what "they" did in
"Rhodesia" (Zimbabwe) etc.

That is only on the page on which I happened to land during a google search.



On 05/08/2008, Jeffrey A. Williams <jwkckid1 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Ian, Rui, and all,
>
>   Not a difficult problem to deal with at all.  All Rui needs to do
>  is block the Domain Name and he shall not recieve any more
>  traffic from that DN.  Problen solved.  Now that said, it on the
>  other had he is attempting to seek broad censor of that DN,
>  than yes, contacting his countries authorities might be in order,
>  as long as he has good reason to seek such a censor.
>
>
>  Ian Peter wrote:
>
>  > Hi Rui,
>  >
>  > Not sure I am best to answer, but as you addressed this to me I'll attempt a
>  > reply and invite others closer to this to also pass on information.
>  >
>  > Sounds like this is not a police matter. If it was breaking a law in your
>  > country, that's a good place to start. If so, then they might be able to do
>  > something in taking a site down if the site happens to have an owner, a
>  > registry, a registrar, a server, and other pertinent attributes all located
>  > in South Africa. (please those more knowledgeable here correct me if I am
>  > wrong). Similarly, if there is a Human Rights Commissioner or equivalent in
>  > the country concerned, they might be able to act if conditions as broadly
>  > described above apply.
>  >
>  > In this case we seem to be dealing with bad taste however. What top level
>  > domain (or cctld) is involved? What is their policy (if they have one?) Is
>  > the required action to remove the site, fix the offending content, issue a
>  > warning? Would they undertake to do any of these or would they say we can
>  > only act if this is a police matter?
>  >
>  > And in this case, would those writing defend this as their right to free
>  > speech, in which case additional parameters might come into play?
>  >
>  > I don't think the answer is easy currently and matters that run close to
>  > censorship issues will never be easy. However, do we need an equivalent of
>  > UDRP (ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy) to deal with
>  > this? A bit of industry self regulation? Code of Content guidelines? Or an
>  > Internet Ombudsman?
>  >
>  > It's a difficult area as far as I can see.
>  >
>  > Ian Peter
>  > Ian Peter and Associates Pty Ltd
>  > PO Box 10670 Adelaide St  Brisbane 4000
>  > Australia
>  > Tel (+614) 1966 7772 or (+612) 6687 0773
>  > www.ianpeter.com
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > > -----Original Message-----
>  > > From: Rui Correia [mailto:correia.rui at gmail.com]
>  > > Sent: 06 August 2008 05:56
>  > > To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Ian Peter
>  > > Subject: [governance] Taking down a site [was: beijing ticket scam]
>  > >
>  > > Hi Ian Peter
>  > >
>  > > Taking it up from your point about take-downs not being automatic
>  > > without validation, perhaps you or others can shed some light on a
>  > > parallel issue.
>  > >
>  > > In the past few days, I've come across two racist websites, full of
>  > > hate speech, but not directly inciting racial hatred.
>  > >
>  > > Any idea where I can report these sites? Someone at international
>  > > level or at national level in South Africa?
>  > >
>  > >
>  > >
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