[governance] Article: "Italy moves to place controls on Internet content"

[Ginger Paque]

I was unable to find the following article online, but it was important
enough to me that I took the time to type in a copy to post here, in case
you haven’t seen it. The article: “Italy moves to place controls on Internet
content” appeared in the print edition of the International Herald Tribune
on Monday, March 9, 2009, on page 13. The whole article is interesting on
several political levels, but in particular, the article states that
Berlusconi has said that he will bring up ways to regulate the Internet at
the Group of 8 industrialized countries meeting in July. Is there a real
possibility the Group of 8 will take this seriously? Is there any precedent?

 

Italy moves to place controls on Internet content

 

International Herald Tribune, Monday March 9th Page 13

 

Milan. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy has put himself front and
center in a debate over whether to place controls on the Internet that go
well beyond those that exist in most of the rest of the world.

 

Berlusconi’s governing coalition has backed a law in the Italian Parliament
that would require Internet service providers to black access to Web sites
with potentially objectionable content.

 

The law, approved last month by the Italian Senate, would give the ISPs 24
hours to block access to the content or face a fine of as much as Euros
250,000, or $315,500.

 

The measure, which must still be approved by the lower house of Parliament,
is one of several steps taken to restrict Internet freedom in Italy. It is
being considered as five Google employees face trial in Milan on charges
that they violated privacy laws with a video posted on the company’s
Italian-language video site.

 

Last month, the Interior ministry said it was studying ways to listen to
conversations on Skype, and the government has also tried harder than most
to close peer-to-peer Web sites that are used to exchange movies and music.

 

Critics are already lining up against the coalition’s proposal.

 

“Australia has taken a step to filter the Internet, France a different step,
Ireland another and even the United States another, but what is worrying is
that Italy is adding them all together, and that leads to a very restrictive
environment,” said Stefano Quintarelli, an Italian Internet pioneer who
co-founded the service provider I.NET and who blogs on technology issues in
English and Italian.

 

“This situation exists in Italy because it is an old country,” Quintarelli
added. “Parliament is filled with old people who are making the decisions.
Young Italians use the Internet and technology more than the European
average, but the older generations are way behind and they are afraid of
technology.”

 

The law was proposed in response to discussion groups on Facebook that
praised two high-level Mafia members—Salvatore Riina, the so-called boss of
bosses, know as Totò, and Bernardo Provenzano – who have been convicted of
multiple murders and are serving life sentences.

 

Berlusconi, who said during the election campaign last year that he did not
use e-mail or the Internet, has said he wants to use his role as host of a
meeting in July of the Group of 8 industrialized countries to discuss ways
to regulate the Internet.

 

The Google trial, which began last month and was scheduled to reconvene
March 17, centers on a video that shows several youths tormenting a
classmate with Down syndrome. The video was online for about two months
before somebody alerted Google, which took it down within a few hours.

 

At issue is whether Google should be considered an Internet service
provider, and thus not liable under current law for content, or whether it
is a content provider with responsibility for what is published on its Web
site.

 

A service provider is liable only if it does not remove illegal content from
its network and servers once notified of its existence.

 

“It’s akin to prosecuting mail service employees for hate speech letters
sent in the post,” Google said in a statement last month when the trial
began. “What’s more, seeking to hold neutral platforms liable for content
posted on them is a direct attack on a free, open Internet.”

 

With Italy’s slow legal system, the Google trial could drag on for more than
a year.

 

Deciding what can and cannot be transmitted in cyberspace and determining
who is responsible has been a thorny issue for governments around the world.
Most have undertaken piecemeal regulation that uses existing laws to punish
crimes committed over the Internet.

 

“The best option is to let people say and do whatever they want on the
Internet and then punish those who overstep and break the law, just like
what happens offline,” said Giorgio Simonelli, a professor at the Catholic
University in Milan who follows the media.

 

“The problem with that policy is that you run the risk of judges being
snowed in with so many cases that you need a judicial system dedicated to
dealing with just Internet issues,” Simonelli said. “But if you try to block
content preventively, you limit freedom of expression, and it is an
important attribute that any free society must have.”

 

In Italy, any court case or legislation that deals with regulating the media
or the Internet takes on an added dimension because Berlusconi has indirect
control over more than 90 percent of the country’s television market. His
family holding company, Fininvest, owns 36 percent of Mediaset, which owns
the three most-watched private television channels in Italy.

 

The prime minister’s political position also gives him a say over the three
RAI public television channels because his political allies name a majority
on the company’s board.

 

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