Terrorism has become a global issue over the past years. Necessary steps are being taken worldwide to reduce and ultimately finish this. Social media like Google, Twitter, Facebook and others will also now be monitored for terrorist materials being posted on the web. A report has come to surface that Europe is making plans for keeping a watch on what is uploaded on the internet. The project has been named “Clean IT†project. This project is funded by 400,000 euro grant and is managed by Dutch counter terrorism officers.
In the “Clean IT†project report it has been recommended that a special squad be designed to keep a check over the whole social media even when making anew profile, on previous profiles, when new groups are joined and exchanging any kind of message. A new system is also being proposed which will allow the users to report any kind of terrorist or extremist material when and where they see it on the social media network. It is mentioned in the report that a special category for reporting such material should be made accessible by users.
Moreover proposal for flagging systems to be made compulsory for chat room providers, email service providers, social networks, online retailing web-stores, voice over internet protocol ad web forums and messaging system providers. This flagging system will be linked to a law enforcement agency which will check for any unnecessary material being uploaded.
Previous such attempts have been highly discouraged by internet companies as they are of the view that this would interfere with the privacy of the users. But with this new report things are about to change for them too. A new bill should be passed making filtering and flagging systems important for trading in EU.
A civil rights activist takes this project as a means of taking the free speech right from people and a permanent fear of being watched by the police. Chief executive of EDRi, a civil rights organization, Joe McNamee has also shown concerns about this project. His fears involve being judged to be a terrorist on the vote of Greek or Estonian officers. Means if they think you are a terrorist then no one will be able to prove otherwise for themselves. He also said that this whole project is not just limited to the security element in the project but is affecting other areas too.
In the start officials were only thinking of that how extremism issues can be taken care of on the web and no one other than the filtering and flagging company officials attended them. The meetings had absolutely no direction or aim to be followed or reached, respectively. The whole project was very attractive for them but now the attraction circle has spread. Other companies and government officials are also becoming interested in the filtering system options.
Concerns about the effectiveness of “Clean IT†project however are still present with some. Like the members of British counter-terrorism office are having discussions with the project owners
and discussing their way out of their own concerns. The final endorsements are expected soon and will be implemented by EU members over the next two years. A blacklist of terrorist websites which are used in filtering software at public networks, educational institutes and libraries is also already in possession of the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, a private Home Office division.
The use of random names instead of real or common names is also a point to be discussed in future in the “Clean IT†project. A new policy by the name “Real identity policy†is due expected which will discontinue the use of names other than real or common ones. Furthermore proofs may also be asked by the internet companies of the real and common names to be used for social networking. All of this will be added as an essential clause when registering on any social networking website. Along with real names only real pictures will be allowed to be uploaded on the profile.
Facebook has already discontinued the use of anonymous names to quite a limit but Twitter thinks and works oppositely. Twitter did not allow any such thing to take place even when the American officials were investigating about the occupy protests. Twitter believes in maintaining the privacy of its users. According to McNamee, a different attitude will be observed by all those who think in a similar fashion after the approval and establishment of the “Clean IT†project by EU.
[Via]
