EU Tells Internet Archive That Much Of Its Site Is 'Terrorist Content'
Update: The Internet Archive has issued a minor correction to its original story, noting that it was not actually Europol who sent the demand, but rather the French Internet Referral Unit using the Europol system, so that it looked like it was coming from Europol.
[...] We've been trying to explain for the past few months just how absolutely insane the new EU Terrorist Content Regulation will be for the internet. Among many other bad provisions, the big one is that it would require content removal within one hour as long as any "competent authority" within the EU sends a notice of content being designated as "terrorist" content. The law is set for a vote in the EU Parliament just next week.
And as if they were attempting to show just how absolutely insane the law would be for the internet, multiple European agencies (we can debate if they're "competent") decided to send over 500 totally bogus takedown demands to the Internet Archive last week, claiming it was hosting terrorist propaganda content.
And just in case you think that maybe the requests are somehow legit, they are so obviously bogus that anyone with a browser would know they are bogus. Included in the list of takedown demands are a bunch of the Archive's "collection pages" including the entire Project Gutenberg page of public domain texts, it's collection of over 15 million freely downloadable texts, the famed Prelinger Archive of public domain films and the Archive's massive Grateful Dead collection. Oh yeah, also a page of CSPAN recordings. So much terrorist content!
Also at Boing Boing.
(Score: 2) by Booga1 on Friday April 19 2019, @06:10AM (1 child)
I wonder what it takes to be declared a "competent authority?" Do you need to be law enforcement? State representative? City council? Park landscaping crew?
With the way they're submitting take down requests, there won't be anything left on the internet. Let's hope they start submitting requests to Facebook next.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @07:47AM
Clearly, you need to have followed a 2-minute course on how to send e-mail.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:22AM (1 child)
I wouldn't be surprised if they actually do shut it down, "tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living" as they say, so it will only get in the way.
The next step would be making take down notifications itself illegal, including any sort of canary. The world grows darker everyday.
Imitating our resident naive idiot, "I question what good does it bring to have access to terrorist propaganda? Why do you even need it to see it?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @10:01PM
Otoh, maybe this is indeed "terrerist" "propaganda." The whole "terrorism" thing is propaganda to begin with, meant to stir up xenophobic sentiment. Terrorism means anything the ruling class doesn't like.
"the entire Project Gutenberg page of public domain texts, it's collection of over 15 million freely downloadable texts:" copyright MAFIAA? Proles having access to information that hasn't been approved by universities that have questionable ties to Five Eyes agencies?
"the famed Prelinger Archive of public domain films:" MAFIAA
"the Archive's massive Grateful Dead collection:" definitely MAFIAA
"Oh yeah, also a page of CSPAN recordings:" best if the proles are kept in the dark about how government actually works. If they're in the dark, it's easier to build that emotional investment in one of the capitalist parties.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:43AM
Who says this isn't one of the good guys proving their poin?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:52AM
I think we've established the case then that FIRU is not competent. And if their notices are indistinguishable from others using the same system, then the entire system should be considered without authority.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @08:43AM
Generally the law passed, but without some of its absurd like 1-hour removal, which was just bought by Internet giants to stop smaller companies from emerging.
And seeing this, it's worth to say that we're all terrorists at this time. If expanding knowledge is called a terrorism, then I'm a terrorist.
P.S. A funny fact: One of MEPs from Poland who voted against ex-Article13 voted for this one hour removal, right after squeaking about how much EU copyright reform would damage freedom in the Internet. Yes, Polish governing party :).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by crafoo on Friday April 19 2019, @10:00AM (1 child)
You can call it whatever you want, but it's clear the real department title is, Ministry of Censorship and Thought Control.
(Score: 3, Funny) by darkfeline on Saturday April 20 2019, @02:11AM
I call it the Ministry of Truth.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(Score: 4, Interesting) by quietus on Friday April 19 2019, @10:51AM (2 children)
I can't find information about the French IRU, but I can provide information about the operational rules of the Belgian IRU. Both were established at the same time, november 2016, in coordination with europol's own EU IRU unit.
As the original intent of the IRUs was to battle terrorist propaganda online, the unit originally consisted mostly of linguists, specialized in Arabic and other Middle Eastern languages. Somewhere before 2018 the EU asked that the unit wouldn't occupy itself only with terrorist propaganda, but also started looking out for hate crime.
The IRU is limited to content that is linked to Belgium: content posted by Belgian natives, or an organization with an official basis in Belgium. Before a request is made to take down content, a check happens with other members of the judiciary, then with europol itself. This first step is only a request though, it is not yet an obligation.
It is mainly rightwing sites who refuse to remove content, arguing freedom of speech or explanation from an academic point-of-view. As an example, Gab -- the rightwing alternative to Facebook and Twitter -- was asked to take down hate speech made by Belgian neonazi profiles on the site. Gab's founder, Andrew Torba reacted with a LOL not gonna happen. In such a case, an official takedown request is made and directed towards the proper authorities -- which in Gab's case probably means europol/interpol connecting the FBI.
Success with removing hate speech is currently limited: only 49% of the requests (187 out of 381 hate posts) issued by the IRU are honored.
Presuming that all IRUs operate on the basis of the same rules, the French IRU must have made a motivation linking the internet archive's content to French authors, and have passed that motivation through to europol/interpol where somebody acted upon it, without checking -- if the story is true.
It would help if there was something like a full title of the requesting authoritiy given, or dare I ask a copy of the mail/letter involved, so we could at least do some basic checks.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday April 19 2019, @11:41AM (1 child)
https://blog.archive.org/2019/04/10/official-eu-agencies-falsely-report-more-than-550-archive-org-urls-as-terrorist-content/ [archive.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by quietus on Friday April 19 2019, @04:03PM
Yes, I've seen that link before and even wasted time on checking out their links. No copies of anything official nor a reference to the French IRU website, if such a site exists (the only thing I found was a site where you could notify French police about internet scams and copyright violations).
What I did notice on revisiting though was that the French IRU issued a threat of being blocked if they didn't comply within 24 hours. That's even more odd, as neither Belgian nor EU Europol IRU has that power, as far as I know, and it would require the cooperation of US authorities to do so.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by realDonaldTrump on Friday April 19 2019, @12:33PM
Internet has been absolutely killing them. So horrible what happened at the Charlie Hebdo Magazine. The Bullet Train from Amsterdam. The Hypercacher Kosher Supermarket. The Bataclan Concert Hall. The Board Walk in Nice. And now the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris( massive fire ). They had to DO SOMETHING. And they did something. Smart move and hopefully they can talk to Russia or China or some people who really know how to "disconnect" from the Iran Internet, the Cuba Internet, the ISIS Internet. We wish them the very best!!!!
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Immerman on Friday April 19 2019, @02:05PM
Any time I see a censorship law like this, the DMCA, etc. my first question is always "What are the consequences for abuse?", whether through intent or incompetence.
If you're putting censorship on a hair-trigger with serious legal repercussions for failure to comply - then there should also be *automatic* penalties for any abuse of the system to similarly discourage abuse of the law. If a censorship attempt is successfully challenged, and not found *at the time of the challenge* to have been due to a reasonable mistake made in good faith, then the party who issued the take-down should be automatically convicted of abuse, and proportional penalties immediately levied against them (taking into account any history of past abuse).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by srobert on Friday April 19 2019, @03:52PM (1 child)
A link in the article led to a description of the sort of material that's being targeted for removal:
(a) inciting or advocating, including by glorifying, the commission of terrorist offences, thereby causing a danger that such acts be committed;
(b) encouraging the contribution to terrorist offences;
(c) promoting the activities of a terrorist group, in particular by encouraging the participation in or support to a terrorist group within the meaning of Article 2(3) of Directive (EU) 2017/541;
(d) instructing on methods or techniques for the purpose of committing terrorist offences.
Do you realize that description would include much of the scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 19 2019, @06:03PM
All content should be blocked unless it contains beheadings, demands for the expulsion and murder of [religious/ethnic] group, or violent overthrow of democratically elected governments.
That's the only way we can make sure that we allow voices on all sides to be heard.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Friday April 19 2019, @04:46PM
It has gotten to the point that any information the governments or corporations do not control that contradicts or challenges the "official" version is "terrorist" content.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Monday April 29 2019, @08:27PM
"Is it true that long ago firemen put fires out instead of going to start them?" "No. Houses have always been fireproof, take my word for it."