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Block web searches - official
11/09/2007 12:06 - (SA)
Brussels - Internet searches for
bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European
Union, the bloc's top security official said on Monday.
Internet providers should also prevent access to any site
giving instructions on how to make a bomb, EU Justice and
Security Commissioner Franco Frattini said.
"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with
the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology
to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like
bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.
The EU executive is to make this proposal to member states
early in November as part of a raft of anti-terrorism proposals.
These include the screening of private data of passengers
flying into the 27-nation bloc and the creation of an early
warning system to alert police forces to thefts of explosives.
Representatives of the internet industry are meeting the EU
on Tuesday, the sixth anniversary of al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks
on the United States, at a European Security Research and
Innovation Forum.
The internet has taken on huge importance for militant
groups, enabling them to share know-how and spread propaganda to
a mass audience, as well as to link cell members.
More co-operation
Asked whether a plan to block searches for bomb instructions
or for the word "terrorism" on web search engines could infringe
on the rights to expression and information, Frattini said in
the phone interview:
"Frankly speaking, instructing people to make a bomb has
nothing to do with the freedom of expression, or the freedom of
informing people.
"The right balance, in my view, is to give priority to the
protection of absolute rights and, first of all, right to life."
Frattini said there would be no bar on opinion, analysis or
historical information but operational instructions useful to
terrorists should be blocked.
He said European legislation would spell out the principles
of blocking access to bomb instructions. The details would be
worked out by each EU country.
Disconnecting a website immediately was currently possible
only in a minority of EU states including Italy, Frattini said.
After German police arrested three men suspected of a major
bomb plot last week, politicians called for greater powers to
monitor computers. Germany's top appeals court has ruled the
clandestine monitoring of computers by police is illegal.
"The level of the threat (in the EU) remains very high,"
Frattini said. "That's why I am making appeals and appeals for
stronger and closer co-operation."
- Reuters
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