European politicians urged to defend internet freedom

Is EU about to cede control of the Internet to ISPs?

Civil liberties campaigners are warning that proposed European legislation could be used to restrict individuals' access to internet content and services.

La Quadrature du Net (Squaring the Net) said that European discussions about internet content filtering raised the possibility that service providers would be given undue control over web traffic, thus infringing civil liberties.

The EU parliament will be voting on the Telecoms Package on 5 May, and last week adopted amendment 138/46 of the Framework Directive of the Telecoms Package, which states that users could not be restricted in what content they could access unless subject to a court order.

Spokesman for La Quadrature du Net, Jérémie Zimmermann, said that the European Parliament must protect EU citizens, and introduce amendments that define clearly what internet service providers may and may not do, in terms of content filtering.

“It is essential to preserve the internet as we know it from the short-sighted greed of some operators," argued Zimmermann.

“In these troubled times where entertainment industries want the ability to police and regulate by themselves, the answer to this question could shape the future of internet in Europe,” said La Quadrature du Net in a statement.

In the UK, ISPs are now legally obliged to keep records of customers’ internet surfing habits, and can be required to hand them over to police and intelligence agencies.