German Internet Censorship Controversy Spreads To U.S.

Last week, at the behest of German government officials, the German telephone service Deutsche Telekom barred its Internet customers from downloading Holocaust-revisionist Web pages stored at Web Communications of Santa Cruz in the U.S. Free-speech advocates at Stanford University and Carnegie-Mellon University have obtained the offending material, posted it on their Web sites, and urged others to post it in locations not blocked by Deutsche Telekom. The idea is to put the material on so many web sites that Germany would have to completely disconnect from the Internet to censor it. Free speech advocates have declared their utter loathing for Nazism, but maintain that the threat of Internet censorship is more menacing than Nazi propaganda. (Boston Globe; February 2, 1996)

Governments Attempt To Limit Flow Of Information On The Internet

Governments around the world are moving to cordon off the Internet and control access for their citizens, viewing the Net as a threat to national security, cultural decency or religious sanctity. This "digital Balkanisation" is seen by experts as one of the most profound changes since the global network emerged as a commercial medium in 1991. In Washington, the proposed Communications Decency Act will hold individuals responsible for posting sexually explicit material to the Internet, a measure decried by many users as intrusive government censorship. Chinese officials are toying with the idea of using advanced filtering technology to build a digital wall around the huge country that would, in effect, cordon off a part of cyberspace for private use. In Saudi Arabia, electronic mail accounts are open to inspection by the ministry of the interior. Iran and Singapore, too, are trying to adopt censorship laws for the new medium. Trying to close off the Internet is "like stopping smoke signals from across the border," cautioned Nicholas Negroponte of MIT. UNESCO director Federico Mayor has also called for the drafting of a global agreement that would help protect rights in cyberspace, and tackle the handling of banned materials. (Boston Globe; February 2, 1996)

France Seeks Global Internet Rules

France will soon ask its European partners to start drafting international rules for global computer networks like the Internet. The plan is likely to anger Internet users, who believe that computer network technology has developed so quickly primarily because it has until now escaped government regulation. The French initiative was prompted partly by the recent posting on the Internet of "Le Grand Secret", a banned book about Francois Mitterrand's battle with cancer which implied he should not have stood in 1988 for the second of his two terms. The initiative, to be presented at a February meeting of EU culture and telecommunications ministers in Bologna, Italy, would lead to an accord comparable to the international law of the sea, which governs the world's oceans. (Reuters News Service; January 31, 1996)