Friday, October 12, 2012

Anti-Islam Film Prompts Saudi Call for Net Censorship Body

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Saudi Arabia has called for a new international body to censor the internet, in the wake of the anti-Islam YouTube clip that recently sparked violence in the Middle East.

In a submission to forthcoming international talks on internet governance, the Gulf state said “there is a crying need for international collaboration to address ‘freedom of expression’ which clearly disregards public order”.

During the controversy over a 14-minute clip posted on YouTube and purportedly a trailer for a feature film called “The Innocence of Muslims”, Google resisted pressure, including from the White House, to remove it.

"This video - which is widely available on the web - is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube," Google said last month.

The Saudi government has now told the World Telecommunications Policy Forum, a UN body, that the incident was “an obvious example” of the need for greater international cooperation to restrict content online.

“Any reasonable person would know that this film would foment violence and, indeed, many innocent persons have died and been injured with this film as a root cause,” the Saudi submission said. …

“This behaviour, along with other malicious and criminal activities such as child pornography, identity theft, spam, denial of service attacks, and malware aimed at destroying or crippling businesses, inter alia, must be addressed by states in a collaborative and cooperative environment and strongly underscores the need for enhanced cooperation,” it said. » | Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent | Thursday, October 11, 2012

My comment:

One of these fine days, the West is going to have to go to war to defend the hard-won principles which are the cornerstone of Western civilisation. We simply cannot allow a totalitarian, theocratic ideology to destroy the principles for which so many have died.
“…Humanity must fight against bad things if we are to survive, and the spiritual things are stronger than anything else, and cannot be destroyed, thank God.” – HRH The Queen Mother
This nonsense has come about because Western politicians have appeased these people all the way along the line, because they haven't stood up, firmly and resolutely, for the principles upon which the West has been founded. As a result, we now have a situation in which Third Worlders are trying to pull the strings. – © Mark