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http://europa.eu.int/rapid/start/cgi/guesten.ksh?p_action.gettxt=gt&doc=SPEECH/00/239|0|RAPID&lg=EN
Speech by António Vitorino European Commissioner for Justice and Home affairs "The Internet and the changing face of hate" Berlin, 26 June 2000
DN: SPEECH/00/239 Date: 2000-06-26
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SPEECH/00/239
Speech by António Vitorino
European Commissioner for Justice and Home affairs
"The Internet and the changing face of hate"
Berlin, 26 June 2000
Mr President,
Minister Däubler-Gmelin,
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
[...]
In response to a request from the International League against Racism and anti-Semitism and the Union of Jewish students in France, a French Court ordered the US Company YAHOO! to prevent French Internet users from using its server for the purpose of obtaining nazi materials. The Court justified its decision by the fact that "exposition for sale of Nazi materials was against the French law".
This decision gave rise to a vigorous reaction of the founder of Yahoo! International. He had agreed to submit Yahoo!France to the provisions of the French law and to prohibit nazi web-site on Yahoo!France, but sees no reason to respect those provisions in the US.
Many pro-nazis groups take the opportunity to move home pages on servers out of the EU, in order to sell all kind of materials, from books to insignia, and to develop racist or xenophobic theory.
My second example concerns hooligans and extreme right organisations using e-mail and the Internet to encourage violent actions and racist behaviours toward players and fans from ethnic and cultural minorities. The European Monitoring Centre on racism and xenophobia reported that in the run-up to the current Euro 2000 competition and in connection with the UEFA Cup final between Arsenal and Galatasaray in Copenhagen, various groups with links to neo-nazis used the Internet to mobilise forces for racist violence across national borders.
Legal action against harmful or illegal activities is first and foremost a clear responsibility of each State. However, because of the nature of the Internet, there are serious limits to what any country can achieve on its own. The two examples I just mentioned clearly show that a pure national solution is not sufficient. The Internet is an international phenomenon in every sense of the word and any effective response will hinge on high levels of international co-operation.
The global threat from computer-related crime has already been recognised and Action is underway in a number of international fora outside the European Union including the G-8, the Council of Europe, the OECD and the United Nations.
The Commission attaches crucial importance to the negotiations of a draft Convention on Cyber-crime being undertaking in the Council of Europe, on which in May 1999 the Council adopted a Common Position. These negotiations will hopefully be completed by the end of this year.
In December 1997 the G8 nations adopted a statement of principles and a 10-point action plan to combat high tech crime. The Commission actively contributes to the work carried out within this framework. It is for example part of the G8 24 hours-points of contact network. Recently in May 2000, the G8 held a Conference in Paris on safety and confidence in cyberspace, urging law enforcement and industry to work together. The outcome of the conference has shown full agreement that the fight against Cybercrime is one of the top priorities on the European agenda.
Also within the European Union, a number of instruments have been adopted to support the fight against cyber-crime. In January 1999 Council and Parliament adopted the Multiannual Action Plan on promoting safer use of the Internet by combating illegal and harmful content on global networks. The purpose of the Internet Action Plan is to provide a financial framework for the various EU initiatives on how to deal with undesirable content on the Internet. A financial plan running to the end of 2002 has been put in place. It is managed by the European Commission to support non-regulatory initiatives, created in close co-operation with industry, Member States and users, for promoting safer use of the Internet.
The 1999 Special European Council on Justice and Home Affairs of Tampere has sent a strong signal to step up a unionwide fight against transnational crime. While underlining the need to protect the freedom and legal rights of individual and economic operators, the Heads of States and Governments clearly expressed their wish that maximum benefit should be derived from co-operation between Member States authorities. In particular, the Council agreed that common definitions, incriminations and sanctions should be focused in the first instance on a limited number of sectors including high tech crime.
The European Commission will present this year a collection of ideas on how to design a comprehensive policy in the context of Information Society and Freedom, Security and Justice objectives in the EU. Our discussion within the Commission is not yet finalised, but I would like to inform you about the main elements of our strategy, which are due to combine law issues and non-legislative measures.
The Commission will propose this year an initiative in the area of child pornography on the Internet as part of a wider package of proposals, which will also cover issues associated with the sexual exploitation of children and trafficking in human beings. We will also examine, after this year's adoption of the report on the Joint Action on racism and xenophobia, the opportunity to propose a similar initiative concerning the fight against this type of crime.
Existing forms of mutual assistance are entirely inadequate for fast- moving and complex investigations on the Internet. In order to improve the effectiveness of co-operation to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators of criminal offences on the Internet there may be scope to apply mutual recognition principles to the preservation of traffic data and the search and seizure of data on the Internet.
The Commission also believes that training of law enforcement staff on high tech crime issues and human rights issues is a major element in this context. It intends therefore to encourage closer collaboration with Internet Service Providers and telecommunication operators.
A specific area in which a new initiative may be required is forensic research in order to develop scientific protocols for searching computers, analysing data and maintaining the authenticity and evidence value of retrieved data.
Improved information and statistics on computer-related crime is also needed in order to obtain a better picture of the nature and extent of computer crime in the Member States. In this context, I welcome the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia's initiative to investigate the use of the Internet to encourage violent and racist behaviour at football matches against players and fans from ethnic minorities.
Close co-operation between law enforcement agencies, Internet Service Providers, telecommunications operators and data protection authorities is an indispensable element to fight effectively computer related crime as I already said at the beginning. There are excellent examples of co-operation at national level, but there is certainly room for improved co-operation at European level to find balanced solutions to the complex policy and technical issues in this area.
Finally industry-led initiatives also deserve encourgament. Industry hotlines, which often focus on child pornography, can usefully be extended to cover other forms of illegal and harmful content as e.g. racism and xenophobia. Industry self-regulation needs to involve the broadest possible number of industries and other interested parties.
Ladies and gentlemen,
Racism, xenophobia and intolerance are diametrically opposed to everything that Europe stands for in terms of human dignity, mutual respect and understanding and citizenship in the broadest sense.
We will not find answers to all the complex questions arising in the coming days. But it is clear that in the globalised world of today many of them will require global efforts by all actors concerned.
I am convinced that the "Berlin Declaration" Minister Däubler-Gmelin will propose on the occasion of this conference will give a vital impetus to our debate and that it will help us in our aim to remove the scourge of racism from the Information Society while preserving the values of the right of privacy and individual freedom.