Chinese Internet as a role model : The Great Firewall of… Israel?

It’s absurd, it’s surreal, it’s unbelievable, it just couldn’t be, yet it seems like nothing is going to stop it from happening. In a most ridiculous turn of events, a member of the a religious party in the Israeli parliament is promoting a new law to push Israel into the Chinese Internet era - by actively censoring the Israeli Internet to block porn.

You think common sense in an advanced democracy would prevent it? not when it comes to Internet technologies, which is a something no body of the 120 Israeli parliament members seems to know anything about. Complete ignorance and stupidity.

Here’s the background from one of the only English articles I found on this issue - "Strictly Kosher Internet" (I’ve bolded the stuff I find extremely ridiculous):

[...] Atias was not deterred: he is drafting a bill to block free access to pornography, violence and gambling websites, and means to pursue the effort.
His faction colleague Amnon Cohen (Shas) has already drafted a bill obliging all consumers to who wish to consume violent or pornographic web content to register with their Internet service provider (ISP), which will use a fingerprint-based biometric identification system to verify the subscriber is an adult.  True, Cohen’s bill is futuristic. The technology doesn’t exist today, and everyone knows it. At best, such a system might be technologically feasible in a few years, but in a country that has been waiting almost three years for the telephone number portability law to be implemented - the bill’s chances are next to nil. [...]

Screening Web content, on the other hand, is a matter of supreme importance to Atias, and apparently, he will not let anyone else deal with it - not even MK Cohen.
The fact that Atias does not use the Internet at home did not keep him from drafting one of the most important reforms prepared by a communications minister in recent years - the Internet telephony policy.
In the past year, Atias has succeeded in passing several other important reforms, to the chagrin of the cellular telephone giants. Atias claims, and rightfully so, that in this multimedia era, it is unreasonable that pornography or harsh violence are meticulously trimmed from television programs, while the Internet has no censorship or control.
Although this exists throughout the world, Atias is apparently trying to solve the problem with a particularly radical and aggressive move.
Atias’ bill seeks to require Israeli ISPs to use a screening device that prevents access to pornography and gambling sites unless a subscriber specifically requests such access. Atias has discussed this matter with the Justice Ministry and communications professionals, in an attempt to reach an agreement on a mode for screening content.
Even though the ISPs already market content-screening software, Atias says this is an unsatisfactory solution.
He finds it hard to believe that families will voluntarily install the screening software and feels content should be screened at the switching centers. Of course he realizes this would mean an invasion of the subscribers’ privacy, as their names would be recorded in the ISPs’ databases.
Still, Atias has rejected efforts to dissuade him from the inevitable clash with secular groups that are planning to object to the bill on the basis of invasion of privacy, freedom of expression and freedom of occupation, to name a few. [...]
Instead of calling for censorship, Atias could require the ISPs to provide all their subscribers with the home screening software, and let parents decide whether to use it. Atias, however, is not likely to compromise on this issue, and the public struggle for online freedom is inevitable.

Now, from this article it sounds like the secular people in Israel would fight for their freedom (privacy, speech etc. etc.), but no - that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen on a large scale. Here’s a translation of blogger Efi’s report on the special parliament committee meeting on the subject  :

[...] There were no smart questions, there was no real discussion, Shas doesn’t want you to see porn. Period. Nothing will help, and there’s no room for questions…

Come to think of it, there was one question from the audience. To be more precise, from the center of the room, from the biggest char in the hall :

The committee chairman, PM Moshe Cachlon asked a question, and what a question it was. The chairman! the chairman! the one who’s suppose to understand the tiniest details and do his homework, the one who’s suppose to understand the people in the committee, the one that will lead to the conclusion. Israel Chachlon simply suggested that the state of Israel will either nationalize or buy the search engines. When the… how should we put it politely… dumb question got a rain of polite giggles and an explanation, he tried to correct himself by saying he didn’t offer it, but only "asked".

The only ones fighting against this new proposal are the Israeli independent bloggers, and they’re having difficulties explaining themselves. I can’t even understand their point :

Bad. It’s not the price, it’s not about having fingerprints in central location, it’s not that proposal isn’t specific enough or technically possible, it’s not even the discussion about porn. What is the main problem with this law, then?

OMG! the religious guy in the debate supporting the proposal-

It’s like we ban drugs, it’s like we ban heroin… (repeated twice) [...]

I don’t know who’ll set the rules, I’m not from Parliament, and I don’t understand technology, I don’t… eh… really know … how to surf the web… religious people, BTW, don’t have Internet at home…

But Yuval gets a little confused when the host asks him whether it might be okay to block pedophiles, which is against the law everywhere. He further confuses the question of whether it’s okay to block porn with the question of what and who defines what porn is. That makes the whole issue too difficult to address, especially in the time given for the news item. The viewer is left with even bigger question marks.

 

 

Same problems, but at least there’s something - Klinger, the lawyer blogger, suggests that people should be responsible for censoring themselves, should they want to do so. If parents don’t want their children to see porn, they should do something about that - like moving the computer into the living room or putting private Netnanny software.

I have the same problem, yet I’ll say this - The Internet is different. In today’s world the Internet is everything. It’s limitless, serving as the essence of freedom and democracy and therefore a reflection of the general public. Controlling the Internet (a self contradicting expression, IMHO) means controlling the people, and no excuse - especially not that of some people who lack the ability to educate their children - is sufficient to justify that. As for how - technological censorship is impossible. Even in China, censorship is not technological, as most of the system relies on self censorship promoted by very strict dark party/government disciplines of intimidation.

The bloggers are still pushing hard, but it might not be enough. Gal Mor and Hanan Cohen collected some links, banners and suggestions on what we should do to fight the new proposal.

(Banner says - "Bro! your big brother is here" & "come meet your new mentor" in small text, with a photo of the PM who suggested the new law proposal).

Good luck, guys.

 
tags: Israel