Sec Council Res. Re: [Privsec] update on paras 49-51, new terroristparagraph introduced

[gus at mail.privacy.org]

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Daniel Boos boos at trash.net
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 19:05:52 +0200
To: privsec at wsis-cs.org
Subject: Sec Council Res. Re: [Privsec] update on paras 49-51, new
"terrorist"paragraph introduced


Ralf Bendrath wrote:
> >
> > 2. At the last minute, Israel suggested a new paragraph. They will
> > discuss it this evening, I think. The paragraph reads:
> >
> > “New 50bis. We underline the importance of countering the
> > manifestations of terrorism at all its forms in the Internet. In
> > particular, we condemn the use of the internet for purposes of
> > financing of terrorist acts, radicalization towards terrorist acts,
> > recruitment for terrorist acts, and glorification of terrorist acts
> > that may incite further terrorist acts.”
> >

Ok, so the way I see this is that someone is having some fun with you. 
They are trying to insert the most recent language as proposed by Tony
Blair on incitement because these are the laws that they're trying to pass
in the UK at the moment.  It really won't go far because of free expression
issues and then you have the billion dollar question:  what acts of terror
can you not glorify?  The debate in the UK resolved (at the moment) to
saying that you can't say anything about anything that happened in the last
twenty years.  Well a lot of shit has happened in the last twenty years,
but that means you can't glorify 9/11 until 2021.  But you can glorify the
holocaust I guess, blah blah.  It is all very silly in legislative language
and they all know this.

THat aside...
- there are no 'manifestations' of terrorism on the internet
- there are no financing of terrorist acts on teh internet
- radicalisation and recruitment and glorification and incitement all verge
on hitting free expression rules that would be protected under both the
ECHR and the first amendment.

So Karen was right on teh definition issue.  Nail them on definition:  what
terrorist acts can't you glorify?  Does that mean you can't have a website
speaking about the Tamil Tigers and glorifying their struggle?  How about
Burma?  IS there an internationally agreed list of unglorifiable acts of
terror that we all agree to, and then we can condemn anybody who speaks out
in anger on these?  It's not just wrong, it's silly.

Now if they talk about cyber-terror that's another thing (attacking
websites, DDOS, etc.).  BUt that's not what their getting at... this is
just a mean inclusion.

I"m not sure what they mean by financing terror on the internet; unless
they mean a website that accepts funds, but really that already falls under
international rules on funding terror (FATF rules, and other banking rules,
etc. etc.) which fall well away from internet policy issues.

So essentially this is all fluff.  It's designed to piss people off.  IF
the americans or the british proposed it then I would be afraid.  THe fact
that it is israel is that it is almost too caricuratish of them to do so; I
imagine that they're far smarter than this.

So you want language?

New 50bis. We underline the importance of education as the ideal means of
countering terrorism at all its forms in the Internet.  We call on
Governments to promote the free flow of information in order to promote
greater understanding across cultures.  Any initiatives to combat the
incitement to terror and the glorification of terrorist acts must be
consistent with international norms and rules on freedom of expression and
freedom of assembly.

It ain't great, but that's teh best I can come up with at the moment.  But
yes, Karen, focus on the problem of definition:  that's the killer.  NOt
just 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter' but there's the
great challenge of agreeing what constitutes incitement and when it is hate
vs. anger, what constitutes a terrorist group, what constitutes terrorist
activity (just unlawful activity vs. really bad activity vs. suicide
bombings?), and so on.

If I had more time I could do better.  Sorry.


--------------------------------------------------------------------
mail2web - Check your email from the web at
http://mail2web.com/ .