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EU Anti-Hate Laws On The Web
coupco writes "The European Union's Council of Europe passes a measure that would make hate speech on the web illegal, and subject to banning and filtering. A story on Wired News explains the How and Why."
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The article talks about the council of europe and not about the european union. They aren't the same.
The EU has less members than the Council of Europe and got more policitcal influence.
With the newly proposed Office of Global Internet Freedom, we may actually end up spending taxpayer dollars to subvert any kind of filtering that the EU enacts on US hate sites (which are roughly 63% of all hate sites on the Internet according to the EU).
Yeah... except that most european countries took a swing to the right over the last couple of years. So i'm afraid your theory doesn't quite add up...
I think you've drastically overstated the rate of accidents involving firearms, but either way the idea of a society remaining free under a government that cannot be overthrown is sheer fantasy.
Europeans generally have a large problem with hate speech. That is, not only the governments but the small people also. (And this applies also to myself.) They think it should not be allowed to make public your hate towards a specific (ethnic) group. Because allowing that would look like this is a generally accepted fact about that group (instead of being viewed as your opinion). Additionally people tend to think that you're EVIL if you hate publicly. Of course, (almost) everyone hates privately, but that's another matter.
People tend to say that hate speech is not tolerated in Europe because of the hideous past of most the countries (especially Germany). While that may be a factor, there are also a lot of other reasons:
Europe is culturally very mixed and (unlike American immigrants) minority people tend to identify themselves very strongly with their original country for at least 3 generations until assimilation kicks in. This makes the situation a bit volatile and public, tolerated hate speech would definetely result in civil unrest.
Europe also has much more population density than the States. So if hate agitators would like to create some kind of disturbance, they affect much more people.
Publicly tolerated hate in Europe would be counterproductive and possibly dangerous in my opinion. Of course this raises the whole issue of censorship but understand that for an average European this issue doesn't feel like censorship at all. Somewhere in there is a fine line that seperates between political/philosophical opinion and hate speech. And so far authorities have not blurred that line, yet...
no laws against childporn? WRONG
:P
no effective gunlaws in the US? FACT!
racist crimes in the US? FACT!
more colored ppl in US jails than in any african country? FACT!
you cant drink a beer when your 16, but you can get sentenced to death.
im also thankful there's an ocean between you and me..
its a good marker for terrorists where they can strike
and btw..your country is hated by 90% of the arab world..i guess we're not that racist afterall then ARE WE?!
Before we all go off the deep end on the EU for these laws lets remember what got them there in the first place.
Follwing WWII West Germany (it wasn't technicaly this yet, but lets call a duck a duck shall we?) and the German court system ammended the Constitution of Germany, making the National Socialist Party (Nazi Party) illegel and unconstitutional.
This was mostly just a show of good faith, as no one in their right mind would profess themselves as a Nazi in allied occupied Germany.
In recent years, however, neo-Nazi parties have been gaining force in Germany, particularly in former East Germany. The German Government has been unable to crack down on these groups because of the assumed political bias against the East that prevades the state. That is -- the East Germans belive that the Westerners dislike them, and thus any move against a pro-nazi East German party would be reguarded as an expression of that East-West bias, and not a hardline stand against Naizism.
Consequently Germany has explored some back channels with the EU to provided these anti-hate speach laws. These laws will allow Germany to act against these Nazistic hate groups without drawing fire from the entering eastern states for political persecution.
The German people have a deep and abiding guilt complex over the crimes their nation committed in the 1930s and 1940s. I have seen few reactions in my world travels as contemptuous and self depreciatating as those the Germans have against any vestige of the Nazi era. While I do not support censorship in general, I think that the German nation has a lot of healing to do. Perhaps in the future these laws can be relaxed, but for now they are important and must remain.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
Disregarding the fact that, a.) Most European countries have laws against incitement of racial, ethnic or religious hatred already, and, b.) the Council of Europe has nothing to do with the EU, I think there is another problem that lies somewhat deeper here: It seems that everytime some article appears here on slashdot about some difference or disagreement between the US and Europe, all the petty hatreds based on a lack of knowledge about the other place come to the fore. Just take a look at the numbers of postings about how evil or "unconstitutional" we Europeans are. One sees this sort of thing from the other side every time some article about the death sentence or the American military's possible action against Iraq.
I worked for the US Airforce many years ago in Berlin and a lot of Americans that I've met here in Europe have some strange idea's about Europe being socialist or some other strange thing (stereotypes like the French being especially anti-american because the French politicians actually have differing opinions to those of whatever American president is currently in power or the Germans still being Nazis). Likewise many Europeans don't know all that much about the US. A lot of Europeans think in terms of stereotypes just as Americans do.
I personally support this (although it already applies here in Switzerland) because I come originally from a country, South Africa, that had hatred as a state policy, and condoning it is like turning a blind eye. A large proportion of Europeans are of middle eastern or north african descent and I don't think anyone in Euope wants a repetition of the holocaust. Too many people died here.
I likewise point out that in the US you had enforced integration in schools (bussing) in the 70's and 80's, so you can see that this isn't some uniquely European idea.
Sadly, however, I think that as the years go by Europe and the US will drift further and further apart and perhaps become enemies someday.
This is a convention that has to be ratified by the legislature of each country, not a law. It is not a treaty and it does not bind the members of the Council in any way. Quite a few European countries will most certainly not ratify it as is for the same reasons as why it wouldn't be accepted in the US.
Please also note that this was cooked up by the Council of Europe, a body with absolutely no real power at all, not the EU Council (which does hold real power).
And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.