Tuesday,
September 15, 1998.
Published
at 10:28 GMT
Crackdown
on Internet racism The UK Home
Secretary, Jack Straw, has called for a
crackdown on racist material published on
the Internet. He
has asked governments across the world to
work together to remove illegal Websites
and prosecute those
responsible. Speaking
to the Board
of Deputies of British
Jews,
Mr Straw revealed that the National
Criminal Intelligence Service would act
against threatening, abusive and racist
material. Mr
Straw said: "The Internet offers exciting
opportunities for global communication,
but it is vulnerable to abuse, because
Websites and newsgroups are accessible
from across international borders." An
expert in the subject has warned that
groups were not only using the Internet
for publicity but also for planning
terrorist activity. Racism
was identified in a report compiled by the
NCIS early in 1998 as one of the principal
areas in which the Internet was
abused. Porn
is already an NCIS target The NCIS has
already been co-operating with other
police agencies around the world to target
child pornography rings, and intelligence
reports suggest that similar co-operation
will be required to combat
racism Net
experts agree that the majority of right
wing, neo-Nazi and fascist Websites that
publish racist material are concentrated
in North America, Germany and
Scandinavia An
NCIS spokesman said: "We have identified
racism as a potential problem and made
recommendations for a strategy for law
enforcement on the Internet. |
"When information is passed to us about
material published on the Net, what we can
do is identify what jurisdiction it comes
from, identify the service provider and
alert the relevant authorities."
Offensive
material The
Board of Deputies echoed Mr Straw's
comments. Spokesman
Michael
Whine[1]
said:
"There is now an acceptance by law
enforcement agencies and governments
within Europe that in addition to
pornography, there is also a problem of
racism online." New EU legislation has
been introduced which Mr Whine was certain
was being used across the
continent He
said much of the offensive material was
produced in the US: "The problem is whose
jurisdiction does it come under? "Not the
Americans, because they don't have laws
against it - the First Amendment of the
Constitution overwhelms everything."
Action can be taken in the UK if material
from abroad is distributed more widely,
and it is believed there are prosecutions
pending under existing UK public order
legislation Mr
Whine was not surprised to see Mr Straw
taking a lead. "British
police seem more adapt at dealing with
it," he said, but warned that many groups
were also using the Web for planning
terrorist activity. Holocaust
denial Mr
Straw singled out groups that tried to
deny the genocide of Jews in World War
II But
although this was offensive, he was
unwilling to make it a criminal offence
because it might infringe on freedom of
speech. "There
is danger that, by introducing
legislation, we would play into the hands
of those who peddle these lies by giving
them a public platform," he
said Mr
Straw confirmed that ministers would
continue to monitor the situation and said
no final decision had been
taken.  |
CLEARLY
THERE is a need to control the flow of
Schmutz and Schund through the
Internet. In our opinion however the
proper place for police action is at the
transmitting or the receiving end, not by
interfering with the fabric of the
Internet itself: the latter action lends
itself too readily to the censorship of
ideas by governments or self-appointed
authorities like the Board of Deputies of
British Jews. 
write to David Irving