EU Censorship News

A Paris appeals court has rejected requests to block the most popular adult tube sites in the country.

Following months of statements and threats pressuring tube sites to implement undefined age verification schemes, French media censor ARCOM went to court in March and April to demand that French ISPs block Pornhub, xHamster, xVideos, Cliphunter and Xnxx.

Meanwhile 2 morality campaign groups are also pushing for ISP blocking via the courts, and their blocking requests add YouPorn, RedTube and Tukif to the list.

ARCOM had  sent formal notices to tube site operators demanding they find a more robust solution than the simple declaration of age. The porn sites did not comply, seemingly because ARCOM had not defined what age verification methods would be acceptable.

French reports now reveal that the Council of State, an appeals court, issued a ruling rejecting the ARCOM blocking requests. The reasons for the rejection are not wholly clear so far but the most plausible is that recourse to blocking should be the last resort rather than the first call. It seems that ARCOM should be doing more work to define what age verification measures the porn websites should be taking.

An upcoming EU law has been leaked that requires big tech companies to scan the private messages of all their users regardless of any end to end encryption technolgy being used. Of course the EU cites child porn and grooming as the nominal justification but when messages have been scanned I am sure that governments will demand that the tech companies hand over the messages for a much wider range of reasons than that claimed.

Under the plans, tech companies -- ranging from web hosting services to messaging platforms - can be ordered to detect both new and previously discovered child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as well as potential instances of grooming. The detection could take place in chat messages, files uploaded to online services, or on websites that host abusive material. The plans echo an effort by Apple last year to scan photos on people's iPhones for abusive content before it was uploaded to iCloud. Apple paused its efforts after a widespread backlash.

If passed, the European legislation would require tech companies to conduct risk assessments for their services to assess the levels of CSAM on their platforms and their existing prevention measures. If necessary, regulators or courts may then issue detection orders that say tech companies must start installing and operating technologies to detect CSAM. The draft legislation doesn't specify what technologies must be installed or how they will operate -- these will be vetted by the new EU Centre -- but says they should be used even when end-to-end encryption is in place.

Read the full details in article from wired.com

Finland's top prosecutor has said she will appeal a decision by a court that ruled against her hate speech allegation against a politician for posting anti-gay Bible verses on Twitter.

The Prosecutor General argued that Paivi Räsänen, a member of parliament, broke Finland's hate speech laws by using Christian theology in a public debate on radio and in tweets. In a tweet to the leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, Räsänen posted a passage from Romans (1:24-27) saying:

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Räsänen was accused of criticizing Finland's state church hosting an LGBT event and writing a booklet titled Male and Female He Created Them.

After the prosecutor announced she would appeal the ruling, Räsänen said:

The prosecutor's decision to appeal the acquittal verdict may lead to the case going all the way to the Supreme Court, giving the possibility of securing precedent protecting freedom of speech and religion for all Finnish people. Also I am happy that this decision will lead to the discussion of the teaching of the Bible continuing in Finnish society. I am ready to defend freedom of speech and religion in all necessary courts, and as far as the European Court of Human rights.