Italian Bill Aims to Block Mafia Facebook Shrines
Amendment follows campaign to sanctify Bernardo Provenzano
Spurred by a row about Facebook pages which honor mafia godfathers, Italian politicians are to vote on new legislation ordering Italian internet providers to block pages on the social networking website which are seen as justifying or encouraging criminal activity.
The measure, which applies to all websites and requires content to be blocked within 24 hours, is contained in an amendment to a public security bill which has been approved by the Italian senate and is about to be voted on by the lower house.
"In December a group of fans of mafia godfather Bernardo Provenzano on Facebook were demanding he be made a saint," Gianpiero D'Alia, the Christian Democrat senator who introduced the amendment, said today. "Provenzano was linked directly and indirectly to hundreds of murders and whoever supports him supports the mafia and commits a crime in Italy."
Any internet provider refusing to co-operate would face fines of up to ?250,000 (?224,000). Marco Pancini, an employee at Google Italia, warned the bill amounted to censorship. "This bill aims at controlling the net, and as such is a danger to our freedom," he told La Repubblica newspaper.
Italy has legislation to block websites considered illegal, but D'Alia said the bill would cut out lengthy court cases. "The government will be able to act fast once a magistrate has informed it that a crime is being committed," he said. "Websites can then challenge the blocking of content in the courts."
"This is not aimed specifically at Facebook, yet they did refuse to drop pages honoring mafiosi but at the same time were quick to censor photos of breastfeeding women," said D'Alia, who added the measure would order the blocking of offending pages, not entire websites.
The measure, which applies to all websites and requires content to be blocked within 24 hours, is contained in an amendment to a public security bill which has been approved by the Italian senate and is about to be voted on by the lower house.
"In December a group of fans of mafia godfather Bernardo Provenzano on Facebook were demanding he be made a saint," Gianpiero D'Alia, the Christian Democrat senator who introduced the amendment, said today. "Provenzano was linked directly and indirectly to hundreds of murders and whoever supports him supports the mafia and commits a crime in Italy."
Any internet provider refusing to co-operate would face fines of up to ?250,000 (?224,000). Marco Pancini, an employee at Google Italia, warned the bill amounted to censorship. "This bill aims at controlling the net, and as such is a danger to our freedom," he told La Repubblica newspaper.
Italy has legislation to block websites considered illegal, but D'Alia said the bill would cut out lengthy court cases. "The government will be able to act fast once a magistrate has informed it that a crime is being committed," he said. "Websites can then challenge the blocking of content in the courts."
"This is not aimed specifically at Facebook, yet they did refuse to drop pages honoring mafiosi but at the same time were quick to censor photos of breastfeeding women," said D'Alia, who added the measure would order the blocking of offending pages, not entire websites.
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