[governance] Facebook profiles blocked and content removed in Brazil

[Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro]

On Thu, May 31, 2012 at 6:37 PM, Norbert Bollow <nb at bollow.ch> wrote:

> Salanieta T. Tamanikaiwaimaro <salanieta.tamanikaiwaimaro at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > If we look at what is recently happening in Thailand as Peng Hwa and
> > Norbert reported on the notions of transitory liability where webmasters
> or
> > the like can face liability (not just fines) but imprisonment for not
> > removing content, I am not surprised.
>
> Regardless of whether one considers it acceptable for Facebook to
> forbid nudity in their ToS and act accordingly, im my mind there
> is no question that whatever freedom of expression issues there
> may be with nudity restrictions on Facebook, the issue of webmaster
> liability is a freedom of expression problem of a much more serious
> kind.
>
> The issue of webmaster liability is serious aaccording to La Rue's Report
on "Intermediary Liability". La Rue raised in paragraph 39 where he
highlights the situation in Turkey and Thailand [
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/17session/A.HRC.17.27_en.pdf
]

"Many States have adopted laws which impose liability upon intermediaries
if they
do not filter, remove or block content generated by users which is deemed
illegal. For
example, in Turkey, Law 5651 on the *Prevention of Crime Committed in the
Information **Technology Domain*, which was enacted in 2007, imposes new
obligations on content providers, ISPs and website hosts. It also  grants
authority to  an agency to issue administrative orders to block websites
for content hosted outside of Turkey, and to take down eight broad types of
unlawful content."

 In Thailand, the 2007 Computer Crimes Act imposes liability upon
intermediaries that
transmit or host third-party content and content authors themselves.This
law has been
used to prosecute individuals providing online platforms.

>From the information sent to the list recently about what was happening in
Thailand in relation to the webmaster being prosecuted for not taking down
"offensive content", it is abundantly clear that there is a need to engage
discussion on instances where the "Exception" is "abused". I think that
societies have to "mature" and sadly often it has to be states and ruling
powers that need to mature in changing their paradigm that it  must allow
their people to speak freely and without fear of "persecution" and
"prosecution".

I would propose that the public interest would be best served by
> focusing the global public policy debates as much as possible on
> the more serious problems and on what can be done to effectively
> address them.
>
> +1

> Greetings,
> Norbert
>
>
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-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala

Tweeter: @SalanietaT
Skype:Salanieta.Tamanikaiwaimaro
Cell: +679 998 2851
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