[governance] Commission's Plan for Online Gambling: Risk of Anti-Democratic Censorship, Again

[Riaz K Tayob]

Themes: NET FILTERING, UE COMMISSION, CENSORSHIP, ONLINE GAMBLING La 
Quadrature du Net – For immediate release Permanent link: 
http://www.laquadrature.net/en/commissions-plan-for-online-gambling-risk-of-anti-democratic-censorship-again 
Commission's Plan for Online Gambling: Risk of Anti-Democratic 
Censorship, Again *** Paris, 24 October 2012 – While the European 
Commission sets out an action plan for online gambling [1], La 
Quadrature du Net warns about the risk of Internet content censorship, 
and urges Member States's governments to refuse the instrumentalisation 
of child protection for unacceptable measures. *** In the name of child 
protection and of the fight against money laundering and fraud, the 
European Commission is once again encouraging the development of online 
content filters: "The Commission is encouraging the development of 
better age-verification tools and online content filters." As shown by 
numerous examples in the past, the instrumentalisation of this kind of 
legitimate pledge often hides the worst anti-democratic measures. 
Content filtering has already proven ineffective to tackle issues that 
the Commission says it needs to deal with: the only effective way is to 
remove content directly from the source, that is to say on the server 
where they are hosted, and to arrest individuals benefiting from these 
illegal contents. Once established, censorship through filtering could 
easily be extended to other categories of content, for example in the 
interest of entertainment lobbies. International mechanisms already 
exist to fight money laundering, and must be used and strenghtened. 
Filtering of Internet content must be banned for the future, and 
repealed where it already exist, such as in France. “Once again, the 
European Commission is trying to implement dangerous filtering measures 
through proposals that appear legitimate and respectable. But other 
measures would be much more effective and less problematic in a freedom 
of expression perspective. Access to the Internet is now essential to 
participate in public debate and for access to knowledge. Under no 
pretext must we allow Internet censorship to develop, or else we will 
profoundly undermine the most fundamental values of our democracy.” 
declared Jérémie Zimmermann, co-founder and spokesperson of the citizen 
organisation La Quadrature du Net. * References * 1. 
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-12-1135_en.htm ** About la 
Quadrature du Net ** La Quadrature du Net is an advocacy group that 
defends the rights and freedoms of citizens on the Internet. More 
specifically, it advocates for the adaptation of French and European 
legislations to respect the founding principles of the Internet, most 
notably the free circulation of knowledge. In addition to its advocacy 
work, the group also aims to foster a better understanding of 
legislative processes among citizens. Through specific and pertinent 
information and tools, La Quadrature du Net hopes to encourage citizens' 
participation in the public debate on rights and freedoms in the digital 
age. La Quadrature du Net is supported by French, European and 
international NGOs including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the 
Open Society Institute and Privacy International. List of supporting 
organisations: 
https://www.laquadrature.net/en/they-support-la-quadrature-du-net ** 
Press contact and press room ** Jérémie Zimmermann, jz at laquadrature.net, 
+33 (0)615 940 675 http://www.laquadrature.net/en/press-room




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