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

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!

Re:Not a major problem!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Why would any sensible person opt to tackle hard problems(especially hard problems that might involve saying upsetting things: for instance "the arse falling out of the property market" almost certainly means that past politicians, and lucky investors, rode a speculative wave, and you are the poor bastard who either has to say "Sorry suckers, it was all a bubble." and get ripped apart by people who believe that they have a natural right to ever-increasing property values, or try to prop up the bubble just a bit longer with some ridiculous tax-credit scheme.) when they could "tackle" easy but emotionally salient ones?

The Irish fear Nigerian scammers

[Vinegar Joe]

They're always trying to steal their Lucky Charms.

Asinine...

[MikeRT]

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.

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.

Re:Asinine...

[koiransuklaa]

Your post stands generally speaking but referring to "the truthful historical record" with regards to Muhammad is a bit weird. Historical records from the pre-Islamic period are rare and quite unreliable: they mostly give us insight on what was considered a somewhat plausible story at the time. Records from the islamic time are better (although still fairly few) but as Muhammad was such a hot topic, their reliability is quite suspect as well.

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.

Re:Blasphemous!

[sznupi]

"Think of the children!" would recently seem to be blaspheamous for too significant part of Irish religious "elite".

Though maybe not, taking various meanings of "think" into account...

Dear Ireland,

[idontgno]

God doesn't need your help. He's a big God, and can take care of Himself. If someone insults Him online, don't you think He can deal with the offender as he pleases without your worthless help?

This is why, IMHO, one of the strongest tenets of true faith truly held is separation of church and state.

Re:Goodbye Internet

[WrongSizeGlass]

If you don't upgrade you are a terrorist (or a pedophile)!!

What if he's just someone who terrorizes pedophiles?

Let's be clear

[Anonymous Coward]

The ultimate goal of censorship -- like every other expansion of government power -- is simply money. The idea of "moral standards", "hate speech", or "national security" are merely smokescreens for what they're really after: billions of dollars in revenue.

At the top of the power pyramid, as long as the money passes through your hands, you win. It doesn't matter where it goes, as long as it passes through your hands, giving you a chance to exploit it for personal gain.

Make no mistake, the primary effect of censorship will be to rake more tax dollars through the hands of the power elite. Every year government costs more, borrows more, and spends more, and yet (surprise) the quality of government only worsens over time. There's a reason why all governments cost more over time, and it sure ain't because governmets are getting better. It's because the more government costs to run, the more lucrative government is for the people who make their fortunes in the business of government.

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

[bigdaisy]

for the sake of appearances or to placate foreign interests

The blasphemy law was passed because the constitution prohibits blasphemy and requires that laws be passed to enforce that prohibition. Nothing had been done about this for decades and nobody cared. The government suddenly decided that someone might take a case against them for failure to legislate for blasphemy, so we got this law that was described as being a trivial law to tie up a few constitutional loose ends and sure the fine is only E100,000! Of course, the proper solution would have been to change the constitution, but...well...down with that sort of thing!

Re:Goodbye Internet

[john83]

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

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?

Re:I thought cutting taxes saved Ireland!

[Anonymous Coward]

That was a number of years ago. That time period was called the Celtic Tiger (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_Tiger). It was a short-lived period of economic growth. But like osullish said, the arse is falling out of everything! :-)

Re:I thought cutting taxes saved Ireland!

[raddan]

Sadly, the idea that Ireland's boom was a result of cutting business tax is a myth, and was covered extensively in this On Point broadcast. The real reason for Ireland's boom was easy credit, the same as everywhere else. Only their bubble was bigger-- partly because the Irish people had never before known a time of wealth, and also partly because Ireland became an attractive place to do business (comparatively low-wage, English-speaking labor)-- a property that disappeared around the same time as the crisis as emigration decreased and wages began to rise. What is true, though, is that the deep cutting of business tax had a detrimental effect on the ability of the government to actually do anything about the crisis-- they simply did not have the funds available to lessen its severity like we were able to in the U.S.

I have many friends who were affected deeply by this. The family of a good friend of mine was nearly employed in its entirety by Dell's Limerick plant. Dell left for cheaper labor in Poland, around the same time that the financial crisis hit. Nearly all of these folks, who, for the first time in generations, could afford to live in their own houses, and own their own cars, went bankrupt overnight. You can debate the wisdom of putting yourself in debt when your fate is tied to a fickle corporation, but the fact is that Dell was fully aware that this would be the result. Dell can kiss my ass if they think I'll ever buy or recommend their hardware again.

Re:Goodbye Internet

[thetoadwarrior]

Or maybe he's a paedophile terrorist and he's planning on flying a plane into a nursery school complete with camera in one hand and penis in the other.

Re:Blasphemous!

[thijsh]

When you have religion dictating what to do with/for/about children I always think: these are the same people that are against planned parenthood, want children to go to church (and the risk of buggering is a bonus) and preach abstinence and other fables to children. There has been a shitstorm about catholic child-abuse, but it's only the tip of the iceberg because a lot of people still think they will betray their faith/god/pope when they talk about their pedo-priest... that's the saddest part: not that it happened but that religion is so involved people are scared for their soul while it should be the priests that fear the flames...

Goddamn, now they take mah Internets! christ.

[rAiNsT0rm]

So I would basically last about 3 minutes in Ireland before being locked up. Look, I had a lovely dinner, and all I said was "that piece of halibut was fit for Jehova."

Re:Goodbye Internet

[martas]

Plato: “The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” As true now as it has ever been.