Italy's First Steps in Censoring the Internet

mijio writes "It's not the first time that Italy discusses Internet censorship. The last year, after some guys appeared in a video punching and blaming a kid with Down syndrome, Minister of Education Fioroni brought in to trial two of Google Italy's managers and then proposed and strongly sustained his idea of censoring the Internet to protect the young. Now Ricardo Levi, the prime minister's right hand, is finally successful in promulgating his law on internet censorship. With the goal of "promoting and enriching the pluralism of information," the law rules that everyone involved in "editorial activity" must be subscribed to the "Registry of Operators of Communication" to be prosecutable in case of defamation, where "editorial product" is defined as "any product with purpose of information, education, divulgation, entertainment, aimed at publication, no matter the form it is realized in and the mean it is distributed with." When inquired about the effects of this rule for bloggers, Levi responded, "We have no interest in touching amatorial or personal sites, it would be not feasible". The Times speaks about this paradox as well."

step back

[l3mure]

Riccardo Levi already stepped back: There was a misunderstanding, he said, we don't want to censor anything and actions will be taken to clarify the law on this point.

Dupe, and disinformed to say the least.

[lbbros]

First of all this is a dupe. The original story [slashdot.org] has already been published. Secondly, this is just (again!) a sensationalistic spin on a law that:

• It is uncostitutional: see here [lulu.com] (link in Italian);
• It won't be proposed in this form due to the huge debate it has raised.

Please, Slashdot editors... do at least some basic research before posting stuff like this.

Re:Dupe, and disinformed to say the least.

[lbbros]

But it means it won't pass or it will be struck down. Don't forget it's just a proposal for a law.

Re:This is happening in Germany as well

[jotok]

Youporn did not bother with this and so had an unfair advantage.

Interesting to note that this was more about economic competition than "Save the Children!"

I've been living and working in Germany for about a month now and this economy doesn't really like "competition" or anything like that. Anyone selling you anything (car, TV, apartment) first asks you how much you are willing to spend; you have to pay all kinds of outrageous extra fees for really no service (it's not uncommon for the realtor/property manager who finds you a place to demand ~3000 euro for their 1 day of work); and businesses collude to keep prices up (nobody is "allowed" to sell for lower prices).

So it's not suprising to me that that this was an issue of halting "competition" rather than protecting young minds.

Re:Dupe, and disinformed to say the least.

[Tim C]

Please, Slashdot editors... do at least some basic research before posting stuff like this.

From the FAQ [slashdot.org]:

How do you verify the accuracy of Slashdot stories?

We don't. You do. :)

The answer was last modified 7 years ago. People have been complaining about this sort of thing for as long as I've been on the site. It's not going to change; they don't care. They are far more focussed on getting stories up quickly than on checking for factual correctness.