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Web Censorship Proposed For Norway

Posted by kdawson on from the great-firewall dept.

Aqwis writes "A Norwegian Web filtering system (link in Norwegian), comparable to the Great Firewall of China, has been proposed to the Norwegian legislature. It would, if enacted, block all Web sites and servers that contain hate material (racial hate, pro-Nazi sites, hate towards the government, etc.), most kinds of pornography (not only child pornography), foreign gambling sites, and sites that share copyrighted or other material that it is not legal to share (such as most BitTorrent sites and services such as LimeWire). Reactions have been mixed; however they are mostly negative."

10 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Right by f_raze13 · · Score: 5, Funny

    If we block any obscene content, our people will become fine, upstanding citizens. And don't tell me to RTFA, because it's in Norwegian.

    1. Re:Right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If we block any obscene content, our people will become fine, upstanding citizens.

      As obviously incorrect as it is, this is actually a common belief in the south eastern US.

      I grew up in San Francisco, but attended college in Alabama. As you might imagine, it took some time to get used to the degree of conservatism in the south east. After all, San Fracisco is a rather liberal place. When I grew up there in the 1970s, it was unusual for a day to go by when you didn't see a topless woman, some guy with his penis hanging out, or even a group of hippies performing their acts of "public love".

      At first I wasn't sure if people in Alabama were serious or not. I'd hear people talking about how evil pornography was, and how if a girl even thought of a scrotum before she was 25, she'd be completely damaged for life. At some convenience stores, some of the religious people would throw the porno mags on the floor while the store owner was watching. It was actually quite strange to see how anti-sexual people in the south east US are.

      I think I got a better understanding of how things really are there when I was in my final year of college. A couple of years before we had had one professor who was extremely against pornography, anal sex, homosexuality, and atheism. During my final year, there was a bit of a scandal involving that professor. It turns out that he had been caught with three other men sexually molesting a farmer's livestock and each other. So we had listened to him rant on against "sexual deviancy" day in and day out, only to find out that he one of the sickest bastards out there, completely contradicting everything he said and supposedly stood for.

  2. No, relli! by j_presper_eckert · · Score: 5, Funny

    So people won't be able to read my blog about how a moose bit my sister once?

    --
    Can't stop the Beta? Time to evacuate to ##altslashdot at webchat.freenode.net - Slashcott in effect.
  3. Porn? They practically invented it by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Norway censor porn? You're kidding, right?

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Porn? They practically invented it by Graabein · · Score: 5, Informative

      Norway censor porn? You're kidding, right?

      Nope. Norway is puritan country. Porn (people fscking) is illegal. Pictures of nekked boobies aren't.

      Even so, this has been blown waaay out of proportion (Slashdot, sensationalist?! Nah...) It's just a proposal by a panel so far and what's more, of the 6 members of the panel 4 were against. The minority, i.e. the remaining 2 members, have demanded that the Justice Department consider the proposal anyway and present it to Parliament regardless.

      Whether or not that will really happen remains to be seen. Needless to say, just about everyone else are up in arms over this.

      Democracy in action, folks. Nothing to see here, move along.

      IAAN (I Am A Norwegian) and IRTFA.

      --
      And remember kids: Never trust a computer you can actually lift.
  4. Re:Curb your impulses! by Waffle+Iron · · Score: 5, Funny

    I agree. The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a big kringle. It's a series of fjords.

  5. Beautiful plumage! by President_Camacho · · Score: 5, Funny

    If we block any obscene content, our people will become fine, upstanding citizens. And don't tell me to RTFA, because it's in Norwegian.

    It's a well known fact that Norwegian blue content is easily blocked. As a matter of fact, the only reason it even shows up on the internet is because it's been nailed there.

    --
    Wizard Needs Food, Badly
  6. It was only a matter of time . . . by troutinator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It was only a matter of time before a Western nation tried this. It is interesting that the press are not censored but instead adhere to self-imposed commandments of caution ("Vær Varsom-plakaten"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway#Politics So now they wouldn't be blocking their own people from saying things but preventing any outside thoughts that were found disagreeable to find their way in. Or will this also go to cover the "hate towards the government" expressed by Norwegians themselves? And just how will such things like "hate towards the government" be determined? Will any discussion of a dislike of the governments actions be blocked, or will it be limited to blatant hate that threatens bombs and assignations? Lets just hope the US never tries that, or have they already?

  7. Re:The Guard of Freedom by Tore+S+B · · Score: 5, Informative

    There's a thoughtful comment based on a complete view of the facts of the situation if I've ever seen one.

    If you'd RTNorwegianA, it says quite clearly that this is merely a suggestion by a panel at a cybercrime law enforcement agency, and has seemingly been universally panned by politicians, media, and the populace alike.

    Tore - The Norwegian Guy.

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    toresbe
  8. Blasphemy! by Hittite+Creosote · · Score: 5, Informative

    On the Monty Python front - the Norwegians (initially) banned the film "Life of Brian". So in Sweden it was advertised as "the movie that is so funny, it was banned in Norway".