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CLAMPDOWN: Internet users at a cyber cafe in Germany. A new EU law to monitor Internet traffic has sparked protests from activists. -- PHOTO: AP
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LONDON - EUROPEAN governments have moved closer to plugging a dangerous gap in their battle against terrorists - the Worldwide Web.
A new EU-wide measure will make the use of the Internet to publish bomb recipes or calls for acts of terrorism a criminal offence.
The proposal, thrashed out by EU home affairs ministers last Friday, has won the backing of the European Parliament after much heated debate.
Under the current proposals, European law-enforcement agencies will be empowered to demand cooperation from Internet providers in order to identify people making terrorist appeals.
Governments will also be able to ensure that the offending material is taken offline.
The new measures are designed to close a loophole which has worried the EU for years. In the immediate aftermath of the Sept 11, 2001 attacks on the US, European governments agreed on common rules to fight terrorism.
But these did not include the Internet, an omission which EU counter-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove - a former Belgian politician who was appointed last September - considers 'highly dangerous'.
Mr de Kerchove claims that some 5,000 Internet sites currently 'contribute to radicalising young people in Europe', and that dealing with them is an urgent task. Britain and Spain, two nations which, because they bore the brunt of terrorist attacks, already have national laws against the use of the Internet for violent purposes, welcomed the initiative.
'The battle to anticipate terrorist acts is crucial; one should not wait for smoke to know there is terrorism,' said Mr Julio Perez Hernandez, Spain's Justice Secretary.
But civil rights activists remain unpersuaded. Ms Sarah Ludford, a legislator from Britain, complained in the European Parliament that anti-terrorism measures are being used to silence what she considers 'legitimate protest'.
She cited news reports that British police recently threatened anti-China protesters during the relay of the Olympic torch with arrest under anti-terror laws as evidence that such laws can be abused.
The EU has promised that its new measures will not restrict freedom of expression or freedom of the press. It will be up to national Parliaments to draft legislation which respects this delicate balance.
But this is easier said than done. Some governments, particularly in Scandinavian countries, have consistently shied away from regulating the Internet. And in other countries, judges regularly put the principle of free speech ahead of the need to fight terrorism.
The British courts recently freed people arrested for publishing terrorist literature on the Internet because the authorities could not prove that this was a clear indication of an immediate violent intent.
And last month, Germany's highest court ruled in a class-action lawsuit by 30,000 people that the country's telecom companies can release details about their customers only under very strict conditions.
So even if Europe-wide legislation is now adopted, there is no guarantee that it will be effective. Nevertheless, the EU initiative does create a common legal standard which now has to be followed.
The hope is that, over time, courts will accept a common interpretation.
Meanwhile, European Internet providers - many of which already operate across frontiers - will also be clearer about their obligations to pull down offending websites.
Jonathan.eyal@gmail.com
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