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Iceland Ministry of Interior wants to filter the Internet

By EDRi · February 27, 2013

This article is also available in:
Deutsch: [Island: Innenministerium will Internetfilter einrichten | https://www.unwatched.org/EDRigram_11.4_Island_Innenministerium_will_Internetfilter_einrichten?pk_campaign=edri&pk_kwd=20130227]

Ögmundur Jónasson, Iceland’s Minister of Interior, intends to support an
“anti-shield” against online pornography, that is Internet filters, to
prevent Internet users from accessing certain sites.

Although Jónasson has until now promoted progressive legislation, he is
now trying to introduce a law to stop the access to online
pornographic images and videos by young people through computers, games
consoles and smartphones, a legislation that would do great harm to
freedom of expression and speech.

Iceland already has a law forbidding the printing and distribution of
pornography which has not yet been updated to cover the Internet. The
methods that are considered include blocking access to pornographic
website addresses and making it illegal to use Icelandic credit cards to
access pay-per-view pornography.

The bill that Jónasson supports has already created doubts and many
companies are thinking seriously of whether to have their business
hosted in Iceland because they fear the country’s laws could lead to a
full censorship system. The bill would put Iceland at the same level as
Iran or China in terms of censorship.

“Modern electronic commerce requires cryptography, and cryptography
precludes centralised censorship, even of harmful material. The way to
combat gender inequality and sexual exploitation is to increase public
awareness and encourage open discussion, not stifle information flows
and violate telecommunications privacy,” said Smári McCarthy, the
executive director of Iceland Modern Media Initiative.

Fortunately, it appears that the Iceland Parliament will not pass the
bill and the parliamentary committee having the task to discuss the
draft bill is looking into alternative ways to help parents to protect
their children from online porn, mainly through free porn-filter
software and educational means.

Iceland’s internet ‘porn shield’ is misguided and unworkable (15.02.2013)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/15/iceland-anti-porn-shield-misguided

Iceland considers pornography ban (13.02.2013)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/iceland/9866949/Iceland-considers-pornography-ban.html