from www.thewhir.com – Major web hosts in Russia have banded together to sign a declaration to fight child pornography and hate speech. When a complaint about improper content is received by a hosting company, the companies have agreed to send the complaint to the proprietor of the site in question, and cut off the site if a response is not received within seven days, according to news reports.
The declaration was reportedly developed with support from the Interior Ministry, the department responsible for Russia’s police forces. In addition to having the right to cut service to rogue websites, hosting providers will have the right to inform police about the complaint.
What constitutes “hate speech” may cause problems, since it appears that web hosts will be able to decide which sites are appropriate, and which ones constitute hate. On the one hand, the United Nations’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination condemns propaganda and organizations that attempt to justify discrimination or are based on the idea of racial supremacy. And on the other hand country-specific rights such as the First Amendment to the US Constitution assure freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
On Friday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his confidence in the Internet as a means for more direct democracy with the discussion of topical issues and the expansion of democratic institutions. “I am absolutely confident that there will come an epoch of return from representative democracy to direct democracy with the help of the Internet,” Medvedev said at a meeting with the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, according to reports. “We are all accustomed to the fact that traditionally, we have always regarded representative democracy as the highest form of democracy because there are deputies who represent the will of the people.”
It is unclear if the democratic elements of the Internet will remain effective when web hosts are the gatekeepers.
On the topic of child pornography, however, Web hosting are largely agreed on its eradication and have been involved in initiatives over the past several years to see to its end.
Last year, Dutch web host LeaseWeb (www.leaseweb.com) began testing a new solution that uses MD5 hash technology to add digital finger prints, or hashes, to child porn images, to be implemented in consultation with Dutch Ministry of Justice and Dutch Child Porn Hotline, along with NetClean (www.netclean.com), a Swedish firm that runs the hash database of the Swedish police commercially. LeaseWeb encouraged other web hosts in The Netherlands to follow its lead and join the initiative.
A year earlier, Go Daddy’s lobbying helped pass the “Protect Our Children Act of 2008,” which prohibits sending live images of child abuse via the Internet and also authorizes money to hire FBI agents who work on child exploitation cases.