This week the French legislature published a decree that will force ISPs to block websites that incite or advocate acts of terrorism, as well as sites that have pedophilia-related content on them.

The decree had been in the works since July, though it was only published in France's Official Journal this week. The rules take effect in the context of the recent Charlie Hebdo killings, when terrorists gunned down a number of employees and bystanders at the offices of the satirical magazine. Since the attack in early January, leaders in the European Union and beyond have called for stricter measures to allow monitoring of the Internet—from UK Prime Minister David Cameron's misguided call for backdoors in encrypted messaging services, to the revivification of a “terrorist site reporting” scheme proposed by EU officials.

France's Decree No. 2015-125 was signed by president François Hollande and prime minister Manuel Valls. Although similar measures have been proposed since 2010, previous versions had thus far been shot down.

Now, the General Directorate of the National Police and its cybercrimes unit will be able to request that sites serving terrorist or pedophilia-related content be blocked by Internet Service Providers serving people in France and its territories. ISPs then have to comply with the request within 24 hours. ISPs will be able to request compensation from the French government for any extra costs incurred in blocking the sites.

Users who navigate to a site “to which access is prohibited will be led to an informational page from the Ministry of the Interior,” the text of the decree said. The informational page will list the grounds for the blocking as well as any possibly remedies. Every quarter, French authorities will check whether the blocked pages still contain the offending material. If not, then the authorities will contact ISPs, which will have to unblock the sites, again within 24 hours.

La Quadrature du Net, a French digital rights advocacy group, decried the decision in a statement this week writing, "With this decree establishing the administrative censorship for Internet content, France once again circumvents the judicial power, betraying the separation of powers in limiting what is the first freedom of all in a democracy—freedom of speech. Website blocking is ineffective since it is easily circumvented. It is also disproportionate because of the risk of over-blocking perfectly lawful content, especially with the blocking technique retained by the Government. The measure only gives the illusion that the State is acting for our safety, while going one step further in undermining fundamental rights online. We must now bring this decree before the French Council of State to get it overturned."

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2...ked-in-france/