FOI shows Department of Justice planning internet blocking for Ireland
April 16th, 2010
In January we filed a Freedom of Information Request with the Department of Justice asking for all documents dealing with internet blocking by ISPs. Last month the response came back – refusing access to almost every internal document!
Sometimes, however, it can be informative to know what is being concealed. When answering FOI requests, departments prepare a schedule of records listing each document they hold by data and title.
Looking at this list (available here) it becomes clear that for some time now the Department of Justice has been proposing the introduction of internet blocking in Ireland – and has been doing this under the radar, without any public consultation or legislative approval. Indeed, it is clear from the list that the Department is not planning on introducing legislation but instead intends to introduce this new form of censorship without any legal basis, based on the now discredited Norwegian and Danish models.
(Item #39 is typical. While we don’t have the content, the description – “Copy detailed minutes of meeting between OIS [Office of Internet Safety] and An Garda Siochána 30/07/08 re proposed introduction of blocking technology – 4 pages” – is revealing. Item #48 shows that the discussions have gone as far as “operational procedures”.)
We’ll be writing more about this shortly – in the meantime, Karlin Lillington has a good piece in today’s Irish Times discussing the implications of these documents:
Putting up barriers to a free and open internetThe Government has been having high-level discussions on introducing internet blocking, writes KARLIN LILLINGTON
THE GOVERNMENT has had extensive private discussions on introducing internet blocking – barring access to websites or domains – according to material obtained under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.
The approach is used by some internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile network operators to block access to child pornography. But increasingly, governments and law enforcement agencies are pushing for much broader use, ranging from blocking filesharing sites to trying to tackle cybercrime and terrorism.
Critics say internet blocking creates many problems with little real effect on illegal activity. For example, internet users and businesses have complained about the side-effects of domain blocking, where barring access to domains can shut down hundreds of personal and business websites as well as e-mail addresses associated with them.
The exact nature of the Government discussions cannot be determined as many of the requests for key documents were refused by the Department of Justice. However, the ongoing high level of discussion on the subject is indicated in the detailed description of each refused item in the list of materials returned by the department.
The FOI request, made by privacy advocate Digital Rights Ireland and seen by The Irish Times, contains eight pages of listed documents. One refused item details a June 2009 meeting between the department and Vodafone on the “introduction of internet filtering in Ireland”. Another is an e-mail from mobile operator 3 listing filter technologies it is using.
Another refused item details minutes of a meeting between the Office for Internet Safety and the Garda “re proposed introduction of blocking technology”. Discussions on the international use of blocking and on proposed European legislation were also refused.
Possible interest in the wider use of such technologies is indicated by a refused document in which an e-mail and note on blocking child pornography sites was forwarded to the official in the Department of Justice in charge of casino gaming regulation.
Proponents of internet blocking argue that it removes offensive and illegal material from the internet and can make it more difficult for child pornographers and their customers to operate.
But critics say it is a blunt instrument that does little to combat pornography or other activities, while causing headaches for networks and ISPs. It can also cause inconvenience and costly disruptions to service for innocent companies and individuals if their websites, internet access and e-mail get cut off.
Paul Durrant of the Internet Service Providers’ Association of Ireland says blocking brings cost burdens for service providers and is not particularly effective. He also says it often means many legitimate websites are barred.
Often, website operators are not informed that their site is on a blacklist and may be unaware that millions are denied access to it.
ISPs also object to taking on the role of policing illegal filesharing. Internationally, ISPs claim they are under increasing pressure from copyright holders and law enforcement agencies to bring in blocking software to do this. “It gets very difficult to judge what is illegal and this kind of blocking would be problematic to implement,” says Durrant. “The Government really needs to put clear laws in place if it wants to do this.”
Durrant adds that blocking “stifles a free and open internet” – a concern for national and international “smart-economy” businesses – and could affect inward investment and the ability of Irish businesses to operate effectively.
Existing evidence indicates that blocking is a clumsy approach and amounts to censorship, says TJ McIntyre, a barrister, UCD law lecturer and chairman of Digital Rights Ireland. He is concerned about the indications from his FOI request that blocking could be brought in on a national level.
McIntyre has written a paper arguing that increasing pressure on network providers and ISPs to act as third-party “gatekeepers”, often in a “voluntary” fashion, allows for unaccountable control of internet users and usage.
“Blocking involves censorship taken on no legal basis. There is no judge, no jury and no right to be heard if you are blocked,” says McIntyre. “The chances are it also will be used in unaccountable ways by unaccountable organisations.”
He adds: “If you want to stop people accessing certain material, the thing to do is to legislate for that.”
Entry Filed under: DRI
59 Comments Add your own
1. Tweets that mention Digit&hellip | April 16th, 2010 at 10:01 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Christian vdB, TJ McIntyre. TJ McIntyre said: Internet blocking planned for Ireland, FOI docs show. Department of Justice proceeding in secret as usual: http://bit.ly/9RmaSH [...]
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3. JP | April 16th, 2010 at 10:39 am
This was posted in responce on twitter. Another good read as to why this is a bad thing for Ireland.
http://eaves.ca/2010/04/14/case-study-open-data-and-the-public-purse/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EavescaMozilla+%28eaves.ca+%C2%BB+mozilla%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
4. C Flower | April 16th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
Good work. We are discussing this on our site. There is a raft of legislation, much of it (but not all) focused on copyright concerns, in preparation internationally.
If a newspaper was closed down because of a copyright or libel issue, there would be uproar.
Website owners need to be more proactive about this.
5. Niall | April 16th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Does anyone have an idea of when this would become enacted or have any quotes explaining Fine Gael’s stance on this?
Cheers.
6. TJ McIntyre | April 16th, 2010 at 10:04 pm
Niall – some Irish mobile providers (O2 in particular) already seem to be blocking against the UK Internet Watch Foundation blacklist – so to that extent it’s already “enacted”.
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28. Pat McKenna | April 18th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
TJ – would you not agree that very limiting legislation that only facilitates hybrid filtering of material that depicts child abuse and /or exploitation – or is directly used to facilitate child sex trafficking or prostitution – would be an appropriate response to enacting content filtering.
I agree with an open internet – but the case of children is very different. Our own research and material from other organisations clearly shows that while attempts to suppress illegal sites is increasing, the nature of the material is equally becoming more obscene with the percentage age profile of victims dropping and the material focussed on level 4 and 5 activity.
I have come to increasingly understand the issues around digital rights, but I cannot agree with an open skies policy where CP is a factor.
Respectfully, Pat
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32. Ireland Plans to Filter t&hellip | April 19th, 2010 at 6:22 am
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33. Ireland Plans to Filter t&hellip | April 19th, 2010 at 6:46 am
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34. Aonghus | April 19th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Please upload to the schedule of records to imgur.com or some other site where it can be downloaded without having to register.
35. Robert Pierce | April 19th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
Pat,
I applaud you and your organizations stance on taking pro-active measures against the creation and distribution of CP.
However, I disagree with implementing state-wide filters to do this.
Filtering only blocks access to the content, it doesn’t remove it – it is still available to others not behind these filters.
Whilst it can be argued that this will decrease the incentive for people to publish such material, because its “market” will have shrunk, I greately fear that our justice system will become less motivated in pursuing difficult cross-border prosecutions of the publishers – as by blocking access to the content, the problem is “solved” for Ireland. We must never bury our heads in the sand.
It should always be remembered that this material physically exists on a machine somewhere, with a connection provided by a chain of ISPs up to your door. You can be pretty sure that above all else none of these ISP would condone CP directly, or work with other ISPs who do. We must make it easier for reports of this material to be passed back down the chain to the country of source, so that offenders can actually be punished.
Pursuing the original creaters of CP should always be the foremost target of such measures. Its the act of creation of this terribleness where the most painful, mentally scarring damage is done.
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44. Jake | April 19th, 2010 at 7:35 pm
But…short of copying the Chinese and installing web censorship software on all our PC’s there’s nothing they can do that can’t be remedied with a simple proxy or VPN…right?
45. Pat McKenna | April 19th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Hi Robert
I completely agree that the primary goal is to target the producers, distributors and consumers of such material.
Right now there are a cluster of servers on the net that host such content thus allowing the creators of sites to populate their pages without a need to possess the imagery themselves. The fact that they can do this allows advertisers to place ads for some well known brands. There is no case for the server owner to answer, or the ad publisher, or even the person at home viewing the material because it is offered in a viewer such as flash and thus requires no download or illegal possession.
Lastly, I can create a fully functional CP in about a minute, and a complete site in 10 minutes with available scripts and sources of content.
Keeping up with these types of issues makes life very difficult for law enforcement
Pat
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47. dave | April 19th, 2010 at 8:38 pm
O2 blocked several sites i use. one of them a well known file hosting service, Megavideo. This has outraged many and was instrumental in me quitting O2.
If you want to see the comments on their forum boards, here is the link.
http://forums.o2online.ie/forums/showthread.php?7728-Megavideo-Blocked
I really pleased to see someone talking about this and delighted to see the story linked in Reddit.
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57. keith | April 8th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
sadly, the DoJ blew me off:
quote:
I am directed by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform, Mr. Alan Shatter, T.D. to thank you for your email , the contents of which have been noted.
The Minister has asked me to thank you for your kind congratulatory words on his appointment.
However, as this matter is more appropriate to the Department of Enterprise,Jobs and Innovation, I have referred your correspondence to that Department for appropriate attention.
Yours sincerely,
Private Secretary to Minister Alan Shatter, T.D.
/quote
58. Clifford Cliff | September 17th, 2011 at 9:00 am
Excellent post! I will be also gonna publish a blog article in regards to this… many thanks
59. maaly (alrashidim) | Pear&hellip | January 8th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
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