Andre Yoskowitz
24 Mar 2012 13:30
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made it illegal for French citizens to visit Web sites that encourage terrorism or hate crimes.
The move comes after the psychotic al-Qaeda-affiliated Mohamed Merah killed Jewish children and French soldiers before dying in a firefight with police officers.
Says Sarkozy: "From now on, any person who habitually consults Web sites that advocate terrorism or that call for hatred and violence will be criminally punished. France will not tolerate forced recruitment or ideological indoctrination on its soil."
The EFF believes Sarkozy has gone too far, saying: "There's no guarantee that criminalizing access to hate speech or terrorist content will end the very real problems of hate crime and terrorism. Extremist violence didn't start with the Internet and it won't end with it, either."
Sarkozy is no stranger to censorship, either. Last month he was caught censoring Twitter users who were critical of him or his administration.