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Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Authoritarian Europe begins the uncloaking process

As the Council of Europe grows more confident, the authoritarian future planned for all who live under the blue & gold stary crown of thorns is rapidly becoming an authoritarian present.

The venerable Eurocrats have decreed that, “‘racist and xenophobic material’ means any written material, any image or any other representation of ideas or theories, which advocates, promotes or incites hatred, discrimination or violence, against any individual or group of individuals, based on race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin, as well as religion if used as pretext for any of these factors.”
[…]
The actual criminal act is “making publicly available, through a computer system” any of the [Council of Europe]’s forbidden thoughts. And be warned; there’s a nice weasel clause for carriers — the CoE castrators are very smart. They know that if they held carriers liable the carriers would lobby this piece of bureaucratic abuse into the dust bin. You are on your own here, and by clever design. You will either take to the streets en masse and sternly warn your government that you will not be told what you can and cannot say, or you will be told what you can and cannot say.

We should like to think that this madness won’t stand long; but as Chesterton noted, it’s the business of Liberals to make imbecilic mistakes like these, and the business of Conservatives to ensure that they never get fixed.

Soon the fact that I regard the EU as a cabal of Transnational Socialist who will turn all Europe into a panoptic nightmare may well be considered ‘xenophobic material’ and thus could get me locked up if I wrote that on Samizdata.net from within the EU. Of course the more likely that looks like becoming a realty, the more you will see pseudonymous postings on Samizdata.net and possibly a change of hosting locale. The state is not your friend… and super-states even less so.

The time is coming for things to start getting nasty. Now that habeas corpus has been made meaningless in Britain, if one of Samizdata.net’s British contributors writing from London upsets a Greek politician by writing something like, say…

All PASOK politicians are a bunch of corrupt socialist bastards who allowed the ’17 November’ terrorist organisation to operate in Greece with impunity for decades because it is actually controlled by elements within PASOK. Recent ‘successes’ against N17 will of course uncover exactly nothing.

Well, merely expressing that view can result in a knock on a door in London by British police with a Greek arrest warrant that cites EU law, and next stop for the person who dared to express a dissenting view is some hell hole jail in the armpit of Europe that was once the cradle of Western civilisation.

This is not something that is the fevered products of wacko anti-EU conspiracy theorists, it is reality and it is well any truly upon Europeans and Britons alike. Transnational fascism of coming, in the guise of anti-fascism, and it is coming right now.

11 comments to Authoritarian Europe begins the uncloaking process

  • Rich

    Den Beste has a nice front page article on this further erosion of our liberty.
    http://www.denbeste.nu

  • Jeffersonian

    This is truly terrifying. It’s almost as if, in addition to the Fabian socialists, a parallel group of Fabian fascists was loose in Europe – except they actually found a way into the buraucracy to steer it.

    Note to David, Perry, et al: We’ve got a couple of spare rooms you’re welcome to use…get out before the travel restrictions are imposed, mates.

  • Bill

    Both the Koran and the Bible qualify. Oh well, legislate in haste, repent at leisure.

  • J. Austin Wilde

    I readily admit to being an ignorant Yank on the matters of the EU, and with that mind, how do the members of the Council of Europe get their jobs? Are they elected, are they political appointees, are they annointed on high by the Burning Bush of the Tranzi God?

    Again, perhaps it’s because I’m a Yank steeped in the nourishing broth of the 1st Amendment that I find this development terrifying. Are no one but scattered bands of European Libertarians calling the CofE on this one? The Orwellian London Underground posters were chilling enough, but this? It’s not even pretending that Big Brother loves you.

  • VonZorch

    Looks like mabye we will have to come back to Europe and kick some tyrant ass again.

  • Peter Schiavo

    Are they still watering down the Victory Gin in Airstrip One?

  • There is no one in the EU that fantasizes about the US agreeing to any of this is there?

  • Dave Farrell

    A perusal of the press release at the link provided adds the worrying information that South Africa (where I live) as well as the US and Canada, were involved in the negotiating process of the Protocol. “…the Protocol is also open for signature by them”. So Americans can’t feel comfortable eitgher. What does the First Amendment mean to Bushies, do you think?

    I assure you a very watchful eye will be kept on developments here, since the movement to ban unpopular speech is very strong in official circles (it includes a powerful desire to prevent dissenting views of state policy and conduct in any media).

    I am sure we can expect a hell of a dustup wherever this Trojan Horse might appear.

  • A Non

    While siting the servers in a “free speech” friendly country may prevent the servers from being seized or demands laid at its ISP’s door to shut it down, it will not protect the poster / contributor.

    Witness the British teenager who thought he had found a loophole in the UK pornography laws – he would set up his subscription porno site in the USA (and carry pictures legal in the USA) and while not necessarily uploading content from the UK he would manage the server from here.

    The courts held that he had control over the server and could thus be construed to be the publisher, because he was the publisher and based in the UK he had broken UK law, he thus ended up with a Sex Offender record!! While many find pronography objectionable, the way it is treated is often a pre-cursor to the way a state will treat other forms of expression and alternative views.

    The demise of anon.penet.fi (anonymous remailer) is indicative of how far the state will go to persue it own agenda.

  • Whilst that is true as far as it goes, A Non, it assume that the log-on to the server is actually traceable to a particular person without access to said server, just by looking at ISP records. By using a VPN it can be made remarkably hard to establish who actually posted what even with some sort of syphon in place.

  • A Non

    Not to bore the non-technical bods however.

    A VPN is no less traceable than any other form of login.

    1) You login to free isp using throw away account (this isp will then log your incoming number and the login id)
    2) You start VPN to remote server, login and make your posting
    3) Remote ISP notices the VPN traffic and stores its origin away in their logs. (along with a multitude of info)
    4) Mr tranzi decides to trak down source of a posting. He goes to ISP2 get logs of connections to the “offending” server during the timeframe of the post. The ISP gives him the log showing the origin of VPN he then goes to ISP1 get their logs which reveal the orginating phone number and they have you. If you used a pay-as-you go mobile they will just use direction finding until they pinpoint your location. You could toss the phone after use, but it would be bloody expensive and they will have silenced you by default.

    My email address is real if you would like to discuss this further.