Ireland May Be Next To Censor the Internet

An anonymous reader writes "According to the Irish Times, the government of Ireland — the country that recently made blasphemy a criminal offense — has had extensive talks regarding the censorship of the Internet. Details are a little sketchy, as the documents requested under the Freedom of Information request were denied; however, '...the ongoing high level of discussion on the subject is indicated in the detailed description of each refused item in the list of materials returned by the [Department of Justice].' Ireland seems to be following the well-trodden path blazed by the Land Down Under, justifying censorship with 'won't somebody think of the children!' (and the copyright holders)."

Comments

Blasphemous!

[spammeister]

I think that FSM and other "religions" that rely on the internet to "spread the good word" would be in all rights able to get this law struck down on some sort of trumped-up blasphemy charge.

Re:Blasphemous!

[Anonymous Coward]

It is interesting how the thinking of the children has been used to promulgate political ideologies. When I'm thinking of the children, I am considering the society their have to grow into. I would certainly prefer that the society would be better (than now) for a human being to live in rather than a country sized prison. Why do these politically motivated prison wards of the future want their children to live in a prison they built? Perhaps they need some first hand experience of a real prison in order to appreciate the freedom of their children.

Punishment

[wisnoskij]

And I suppose that the punishment to speaking against God will be stoning to death?
So what happens to all the citizens of Ireland that do not believe in God? I would guess that practicing any other religion is considered blasphemy...

Re:Punishment

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no god.

Religions use fear and guilt to get their followers to behave in the way the religion wants. Much of the time, that behavior is good for society and the world as a whole, but when a religion tries to limit in any way the beliefs of others, then it needs to be stopped.

I saw a poll yesterday of Africans. It was split between Muslim and Christians and how they believed about their and other religions. The most telling to me was that 60% of Nigerian Muslims believe that a single world government ran by Muslims will happen within their lifetime. Scary, not just for Christians, but for atheists like me. Only 30% of Christians believed that Jesus would return during their lifetime - still too high.

Ignorant people are never good, but especially when they become involved in organized religion.

Not a major problem!

[osullish]

I'm Irish, and at the rate this country is falling apart, they'll be nobody left here to access the internet in a few years. This is typical of the current Irish government, faffing about with silly non-existant problems, while failing to tackle the major problems like the economy, the collapse of the banking sector, the arse falling out of the property market, the child abuse scandal involving the catholic church, the alcoholism of the country, the violent crime thats becoming more prevalent etc. We're €81,000,000,000 in the red due to the cronyism of the banking and construction sector and this is what we waste our time with!

Ireland is a banana republic

[Handbrewer]

And I'm not kidding, I live here at the moment, although I come from mainland Europe. This country is backwards. Think 1940es style, backwards.

I dont know why that is, perhaps its the general repression during British rule, the famine, the isolation from europe, and the dominance of the catholic church, but its so conservative you wouldnt believe it. Women have to go on special ferries to get abortions in the UK - and they risk all kinds of hell if anyone reports it back home. I see teenage mothers all over the place and every day theres new details about the catholic church raping (literally) the entire society. And on top of that, the last 3 taoiseachs has been openly corrupt, and probably longer back than that.

Oh well, atleast the pubs are OK.

A Little Primer on Ireland

[ObsessiveMathsFreak]

There is one thing people from other countries--especially the US--really need to understand about Ireland.

In Ireland, we do not really have laws. What we have are more like customs.

Now, it's customary for the Dail (Parliment) to pass the odd few reasonable laws, and its customary for the population to--more or less--abide by them. It's also customary at times, for the sake of appearances or to placate foreign interests, for the Dail to pass unreasonable, unpopular or at times ludicrous laws (e.g. blasphemy). On such occasions, it's customary for the population(and indeed the State) to completely ignore the laws as they are passed.

If you want an example of this, there's a story in the same newspaper about Ireland's oldest gay bar, which opened while homosexuality was still actually illegal in the country. While it may have been illegal, no one was actually going to waste their time dealing with it.

Despite this however, I imagine that internet censorship will eventually be implemented in Ireland as it has been in the UK and Australia, and in Saudi Arabia and China. The technologies developed by the west to oppress those in other countries are being turned back on its own apathetic populations. We've only ourselves to blame.

Re:A Little Primer on Ireland

[garyok]

Not yet - wait until the Digital Economy Bill kicks in in about a year and all sorts of sites start falling off the net because they enabled 'copyright infringement'. And that's forgetting the efforts by the Internet Watch Foundation trying to get sites blocked for teh kiddehs. Damn, I'm thinking of starting a Stay the Fuck Out of Other People's Business Party. That's change you can believe in.

Re:A Little Primer on Ireland

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually the UK internet is censored by some ISP's. There is a voluntary scheme where ISP's block sites on the IWF list (Internet Watch Foundation). Only the IWF and the Home Secretary know the contents of the IWF list. I believe even elected Members of Parliament are not allowed to look at the list.

IWF does NOT have a license to look at kiddy porn, but by some strange magic they manage to work out the sites to block. Oh and the Home Secretary can add any other sites he/she desires.

Re:Goodbye Internet

[john83]

Given our record on this sort of thing, the ISPs here will cheerfully comply.

Re:Asinine...

[john83]

Each religion blasphemes the deities of the others, even in subtle ways. Muslims blaspheme Jesus Christ by denying his divinity to Christians. Christians blaspheme Yaweh in the eyes of the Jews by calling Jesus his son. Both blaspheme Allah in the eyes of the Muslim by most of their beliefs about Mohamed and their religious texts.

Yeah, we know.

I thought cutting taxes saved Ireland!

[FatSean]

Here in the USA I keep hearing about how the Irish economy boomed after taxes were cut to the bone to 'encourage business'. What say you?