14 DAY TRIAL // Following the recent efforts of the authorities from all around the world to stop the malicious use of the Internet in order to conduct terrorist attacks, the European Union is also getting involved in the matter and plans to impose new restrictions soon. Reuters reports that EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini wants to promote some new laws that would restrict the Internet access to detailed instructions about bombs, crimes, terrorism and genocide. Obviously, this would also involve the Mountain View super giant Google which would be required to filter the results displayed to the users for certain queries.
"I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," the EU representative said according to the same source. "Frankly speaking, instructing people to make a bomb has nothing to do with the freedom of expression, or the freedom of informing people. The right balance, in my view, is to give priority to the protection of absolute rights and, first of all, right to life."
I admit the Internet becomes one of the best sources for dangerous content such as terrorist information but new restrictions would lead to other illegal moves made by the Internet users who want to access the restricted details. Maybe some servers will move to Sealand in order to remain on the legal side and to provide the same unauthorized content as before.
But the Internet content is clearly becoming a threat for everyone of us. Look at Google Earth for example. The downloadable mapping tool is used by some many people to view satellite imagery that even the terrorists installed it. Recently, it was reported that several extremists used Google Earth to gain details about the JFK International Airport, their new target for terrorist attacks.