On “censorship”
So this is about a law recently passed in Germany and more specifically about the discussion.
For those not in the know: This law dictates that ISPs must block sites with child pornography on it based on a list created by the BKA.
So first what is wrong with the law:
- It creates an infrastructure that allows for censorship
- The block-lists are not checked. The BKA is the only instance with any control over it
- There are no know countries where it is not possible to delete the content instead (which is obviously better
- Its not even possible to effectively block a website
- This is not something the Bundestag may actually decide. It’s prevention which is federal state law
All good reasons to be against this law. And many people are, but there is something that everybody claims that is just wrong. This is not censorship. The law itself dictates blocking illegal content, that in itself is by no means censorship. The law allows for unnoticed censorship, because the lists are not checked and it creates an infrastructure that allows for censorship, which once available makes the lobby want to block all kinds of other things (file-sharing etc.).
Now why do I emphasis this so much? Claiming it is censorship doesn’t do our cause any good. It just gives the opposition ammunition, enabling them to claim we are the bad guys. Who else would claim that blocking evil child pornography is censorship, right? So please everybody, try not to go on about Art. 5 GG being dead, etc. (BTW I’m relatively fine with Zensursula
as all this is about enabling censorship, but I’m against claiming people are trying to introduce censorship)
Tags: censorship, law, Politics, Zensursula
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