QuickLinks - Content regulation

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Issue no. 132 - 11 November 1999

• UK - Irvine closes down 'anti-judge' website (Independent)
  The Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, has shut down a website because it was being used to criticise judges. see also Hulbert’s Case, the Lord Chancellor and Censorship of the Internet (Cyber-Rights & Cyber-Liberties (UK)).

• USA - Judges Blast Net Porn Law (Reuters)
  A government move to protect children from pornography on the Internet came under fire Thursday from a U.S. judge who suggested that the Child Online Protection Act could lead to censorship as restrictive as in Iran or Iraq. see also Judges Question Government's Role In Protecting Children on Internet (The Legal Intelligencer)

Issue no. 131 - 4 November 1999

• Australia - Yahoo opts for censorship (Sydney Morning Herald)
  Yahoo has started censoring content from its chat areas, even though it has not received any consumer complaints. The Yahoo Web site lets users post comments on "message boards" to debate a broad range of issues.

• France - Bourges: une régulation de l'internet est "nécessaire" (AFP)
  Une régulation de l'internet est "nécessaire" et doit être "légitime", et "prendre en compte les enjeux sociaux et culturels", a affirmé mercredi Hervé Bourges, président du Conseil supérieur audiovisuel (CSA), en rendant compte de la préparation du prochain "Sommet mondial des régulateurs sur internet et les nouveaux services". Le CSA brûle de faire la police sur le Net

• USA - "We're researching porn, really" (Fox News)
  Six public college professors asked a federal appeals court to throw out a Virginia law barring state employees from accessing sexually explicit materials on computers at work. The professors claim the law impedes their ability to conduct legitimate academic research.

• USA - State of First Amendment (Freedom Forum)
  A survey released by the First Amendment Center reveals that support for Internet free speech has increased over the past two years, although a majority of Americans favor restrictions on online content.

Issue no. 130 - 23 October 1999

• France - Le CSA brûle de faire la police sur le Net (Libération)
  Hervé Bourges, président du Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel (CSA), veut un morceau du gâteau de la régulation de l'Internet. Le CSA a joué le rôle de «puissance invitante» pour une journée de réflexion consacrée à la «Communication audiovisuelle et Internet». Une journée entière pour discuter des règles applicables sur le réseau, et, surtout, de la répartition des rôles entre les différents organismes.

Issue no. 129 - 16 October 1999

• USA - Cyberporn: 'Good thing' or dangerous? (Reuters)
  A panel clashed over whether pornography on the World Wide Web is a "good thing" that contributes to the economy, or a danger that sacrifices children on the altar of the First Amendment.

• USA - Internet Law Challenged (The Washington Post)
  Civil rights advocates and 15 Internet businesses filed a federal lawsuit yesterday challenging the constitutionality of a new Virginia law that seeks to ban from the Internet commercial material that could be considered harmful to juveniles.

• Tunis Fishes for Net Control (Wired)
  Net use in Tunisia

Issue no. 127 - 20 September 1999

• Bertelsmann Pleads for Self-Regulation Online (internet.com)
  In a paper presented at the Internet Content Summit, the Bertelsmann Foundation called for greater user control over content regulation. The paper recommended user implementation of rating, filtering and security technology for content regulation, and that international hotlines and "credible self-regulatory institutions" be created to resolve user complaints. The foundation stated its belief that freedom of speech and child protection online go hand in hand. What is needed, it said, is "a new culture of responsibility." see also Plan Calls for Self-Policing of the Internet and Yale Law Professor Is Main Architect of Global Filtering Plan (New York Times), Who Polices the Net? (IDG) Internet Ratings Redux (Wired), Global Internet Liberty Campaign (GILC) Press Release, Queasy About Online Ratings(Newsbytes), Net censorship: An impossible task?(IDG), Self-Rating Of Sites Assailed (The Washington Post), Munich, The Censors' Convention (slashdot), Großindustrie und Politik wollen mit unliebsamen Inhalten im Internet aufräumen (Heise Online).

• China bans Internet investment (BBC)
  The Chinese government is planning to ban all foreign investment in the Internet. Information Minister Wu Jichuan said that foreign investment was not allowed by law and that China now planned to clean up the "irregularities." Up to now, ambiguity about the role of content providers, like portals, has led to big foreign investments in Chinese sites, even though ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who provide Internet access have been banned.

Issue no. 126 - 8 September 1999

• Australians reject Net censorship (EFA)
  An international survey has shown that the Australian public does not support government censorship of the Internet, according to Internet regulation watchdog Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA).

• Net laws world's most 'draconian' (The Australian)
  Australia's new Internet censorship legislation is among the world's most draconian and should be repealed before it does further damage to the country's reputation and e-commerce industry, Nadine Strossen, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union warned.

• The twenty enemies of the Internet (Press Release)
  Reporters Sans Frontières names forty-five countries which restrict their citizens' access to the internet - usually by forcing them to subscribe to a state-run Internet Service Provider (ISP). Twenty of these countries may be described as real enemies of the Internet because they control access totally or partially, have censored web sites or taken action against users. They are: the countries of Central Asia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kirghizia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), Belarus, Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam.

• China - Dissident Arrested For Printing Internet Newsletter (IT Daily)
  A Chinese dissident has been charged with subversion after making copies of an Internet pro-democracy journal, according to an Associated Press report.

Issue no. 125 - 3 August 1999

• USA - Injunction set on Michigan Net porn law (Reuters)
  A U.S. District Court Judge issued a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a new Michigan law aimed at people who distribute sexually explicit materials to children over the Internet.

Issue no. 124 - 28 July 1999

• Argentina tackles Internet racism (Reuters)
  Two Argentine legislators presented a bill aimed at cracking down on discrimination and racism on Internet sites

• Tracking Net Censorship (Yahoo!Internet Life)
  The Internet is tough to censor.

Issue no. 123 - 21 July 1999

• Net clampdown criticised (BBC)
  Internet growth in the Middle East and North Africa has been stunted by countries fearing it will undermine their control over information, a Human Rights Watch report says.

• UK - Sex on TV complaints rocket (BBC)
  Complaints about sex on television have soared over the last year, according to the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC). In its annual report, the TV watchdog says complaints about sex rose by 60% in 1998-99 compared to the previous year and now represent nearly a quarter of all viewers concerns. See also Commission calls for better media education as concern grows for the viewing skills of the young (Press Release).

Issue no. 122 - 7 July 1999

• Australia Passes Law on Limiting Internet (New York Times)
  The Australian government approved a law that would force Australian Internet service providers to remove objectionable material from Australian sites and to block access to similar sites overseas. see also Australian Net Censor Law Passes (Wired) Senate passes Internet Content Legislation

• UK - Demon accused of Net libel hypocrisy (BBC)
  Demon Internet has been accused of hypocrisy by its subscribers for pursuing its own libel action against a newsgroup user and then defending freedom of speech on the Net. But it has since come to light that Demon successfully sued a newsgroup user for a defamatory posting about the company in the UK.legal group three years ago.

• USA - Censorship no answer to media violence (CNET News.com)
  The Clinton administration is concerned that violence in entertainment desensitizes young people, but the administration will not seek to impose censorship. "We will not be the modern embodiment of the thought police," said U.S. Federal Trade Commission chairman Robert Pitofsky. He said a study of the entertainment industry that he is helping oversee will focus on the effectiveness of self- regulation.

Issue no. 120 - 14 June 1999

• Henry Hyde Seeks Ban On Sex Pictures (Newsbytes)
  A bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep Henry Hyde seeks to outlaw the dissemination of sexual material to minors. The bill also requires the National Institutes of Health to study the effects of videogames and music on child development and youth violence and encourages the entertainment industry to develop standards of appropriate conduct for the programming they show to minors.

• Australia - Porn sites head offshore to beat law (Sydney Morning Herald)
  Major Australian Internet pornography operators are moving their operations offshore in an effort to frustrate the Federal Government's planned crackdown on "smut sites".

• UK - Concern about sex on TV increases (Guardian)
  A new survey from the Broadcasting Standards Commission reveals that people are more concerned about sex on television than at any point in the past four years. The monitoring showed there was in fact less sex on screen in 1998 than the year before, but there was a growing sense among the public that sex is everywhere.

• UK - Judge tells porn trio: I've seen worse on TV (The Times)
  A judge freed three pornographers yesterday after asking the astonished trio if their videos were the best they could do, adding that he had seen worse material on Channel 5. The men admitted publishing material contrary to the Obscene Publications Act and were given 18-month conditional discharges by the judge.

Issue no. 119 - 7 June 1999

• Censors in New Zealand struggle to master computer games (Reuters)
  New Zealand censors are struggling to police violence and sex in computer games because they don't have the skills to reach the top levels.

• China Starts Censoring Tiananmen Anniversary Satellite Feeds (Newsbytes)
  Chinese officials are blocking satellite feeds and foreign television broadcasts in Beijing as the tenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy crackdown approaches.

• Australia - Senate passes Internet Content Legislation (Press Release)
  The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999 has passed the Senate with a number of government amendments and will now go to the House of Representatives for approval. see also Industry Protests Over Internet Content Bill (InternetNews.com) Internet providers plotting revenge over bill (Sydney Morning Herald) Minister: We Can Block Porn (Wired) Web porn queen fights restrictions down under (Register) Aussies Battle Censorship (Wired).

• China - Shanghai Tightens Curbs On Internet Cafes (Reuters)
  Shanghai has punished 278 unregistered Internet cafes in a crackdown on uncontrolled forays into cyberspace. Shanghai now has more than 2,000 Internet cafes but only 1,500 of them have applied to register and only 350 are authorized.

• USA - In Intel E-Mail Case, Property Rights vs. Free Speech (New York Times)
  Reference to an article in the May issue of the Harvard Law Review, discussing whether the First Amendment covers e-mail messages sent by a former employee to Intel employees.

Issue no. 118 - 21 May 1999

• Canadian regulator to keep hands off Internet (Media Central)
  The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will not regulate the Internet because it does not fall under the definition of broadcasting under the country's Broadcasting Act. see also http://www.crtc.gc.ca/ENG/NEWS/RELEASES/1999/R990517e.htm

• Extent of support for Australian government plans contested (Sydney Morning Herald)
  There may well be in-principle support for the idea that there should be regulation of the online industry, but there's little or no political agreement with the government's proposed methods of doing so.

Issue no. 117 - 8 May 1999

• USA - FCC sends dirty joke to email list (CNet News.com)
  The Federal Communications Commission--which monitors the airwaves for what it considers obscene and indecent language--today forwarded a dirty joke to subscribers of its external email list.

Issue no. 116 - 1 May 1999

• GeoCities Members Complain Over Ads for Adult Sites (New York Times)
  GeoCities, a collection of Web pages largely built for free by its four million members around the world, has long prohibited individual members from displaying pornographic material. But the recent introduction of adult-themed advertisements which appear if a search is made for sex-related items has prompted some members to accuse the company of a double standard.

Issue no. 115 - 24 April 1999

• Australia - Content bill published (Press Release)
  The text of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Online Services) Bill 1999 has been published. Internet content regime announced

Issue no. 114 - 26 March 1999

• Australia - Net Regulation Plans Draw Industry Fire (Newsbytes)
  Australian government proposals to regulate content accessed by the nation's citizens on the global Internet have been met with surprise and criticism from much of the Internet industry. Internet content regime announced

• Web of porn special (ZDNet)
  Pornography on the Web is never more than a few clicks away. While mainstream business continues to debate the merits of going online, pornographers have never had any hesitation. Internet porn is big business and here to stay. But the difficulties of regulating pornography on the Internet are daunting -- as parents, employers and governments are finding out to their cost.

Issue no. 113 - 19 March 1999

• Malaysia Drops Registration Plans For The Internet (Newsbytes)
  Malaysia's Prime Minister has ordered that Internet registration provisions related to Internet access from cybercafes introduced last December be removed.

• Malaysia holds two over riot rumors on Internet (Reuters)
  Malaysia has used a powerful national security law to arrest a man and woman over suspicion of spreading rumors of riots in the capital over the Internet last week

• Rising Tide: Sites Born of Hate (New York Times)
  Racist pages grow in number and sophistication and may lure the unwary.

• The Internet's 'Open Sesame' Is Answered Warily (New York Times)
  Ever so gingerly, the Internet is being allowed across some final frontiers, into restrictive parts of the Islamic world, under the wary eye of governments used to playing Big Brother.

• Australia - Internet content regime announced (Press Release)
  The Government will introduce stronger measures to protect Australian citizens, especially children, against illegal or highly offensive material on the internet. The Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) will administer this regime. For content hosted in Australia, the ABA must seek a National Classification Board opinion or classification if the content is likely to be classified in certain ways. The Board is responsible for classifying films and videos, computer games and publications. The regime also provides for self-regulatory codes of practice for the online service provider industry, to be overseen by the ABA. These codes of practice must include a commitment by an online service provider to take all reasonable steps to block access to RC or X material hosted overseas, once the service provider has been notified of the existence of the material by the ABA. See also Electronic Frontiers Australia and CSIRO report on content blocking

Issue no. 112 - 12 March 1999

• USA - Making the Grade on Free Speech (Wired)
  The White House and the Congress have trampled on Americans' online free speech rights, a media think tank says.

Issue no. 111 - 8 March 1999

• Germany - Number of hate sites has doubled (Reuters)
  Die Zahl der deutschsprachigen links- und rechtsextremistischen Seiten im Internet hat sich nach Einschätzung des Bundesamtes für Verfassungsschutzes seit 1997 nahezu verdoppelt. Seine Behörde habe zuletzt 300 Homepages mit rechtsextremen und 350 mit linksextremen Inhalten registriert. Der Verfassungsschutz werde prüfen, ob darin Aufrufe oder Anleitungen zu Straftaten erhalten seien.

Issue no. 110 - 3 March 1999

• USA - New injunction against 'Nuremberg' site (ZDNet)
  A federal judge issued a permanent injunction barring 14 defendants from threatening doctors through a controversial anti-abortion Web site or similar printed materials.

• USA - Wisconsin Supreme Court strikes part of pornography law (Nando Media - AP)
  The Wisconsin Supreme Court annulled part of the state's anti-pornography law, dismissing two counts of sexual exploitation of a child against a man accused of downloading Internet pictures of naked boys and distributing them in 1995 and 1996. The justices struck down the portion of a 1987 law used to charge Zarnke, ruling it unconstitutional because it requires the defendant to prove his or her lack of knowledge of the child's age and violates the First Amendment.

• USA - Yahoo message board suit continues (CNET News.com)
  A publicly traded Internet company that sued 100 "John Does" for allegedly posting false and defamatory statements about it on a Yahoo Finance message board has narrowed its case to a handful of individuals. *

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