France's Sarkozy announces plans to jail repeat visitors to extremist websites

news.yahoo.com...

PARIS - France's president proposed a sweeping new law Thursday that would see repeat visitors to extremist websites put behind bars — one of several tough measures floated in the wake of a murderous shooting spree.
The proposed rules, unveiled by Nicolas Sarkozy after the death of an Islamist fanatic wanted for a horrifying series of execution-style murders, have alarmed journalists and legal experts, who say they risk pulling the plug on free expression.

don't ask me why...but i read this headline and immediately thought of my own web habits...

the world is approaching zero tolerance for 'extreme' views concerning anything.

that's why I keep my personal beliefs conservative.

thats just sick and perverted!

I've visited plenty of extremist site over the years, for completely innocent reasons and thats not even taking into account freedom of speach and the definition of extremist!

Could ATS be saying goodbye to its french members soon?

They have to be kidding me..... A sick, depraved and twisted individual murders numerous innocent people in the REAL world with a REAL weapon and the answer is to take people's freedom from them by force of the State because they dare LOOK at material the State deems unfit for it's population's eyes???

Damn France.....Let me lend you a copy of our Constitution. It has it's problems...it's a little worn around the edges and the current crop of leaders hate it to their very core....but we have a First Amendment, right at the top you all might be interested in duplicating in some way after your corner of life has it's own TSHTF moment and rebuilding time comes.

Prison for loading website pages on a computer screen. Wow... Thank God they cannot reliably determine our thoughts. We'd literally have reasons to fear that too.



Hey.... It occurred to me...There is an example I can even throw out which should make me PNG for Life in the Republic of France. I spent several days a few weeks ago reading, page for page, every back issue of Inspire Magazine. Now how much more extreme can ANYONE get than Inspire? I actually felt imaginary eyes on my neck as I was reading the articles...as if I could sense Uncle frowning down upon my choice of research material.(BTW... Inspire is..or was..the Official Publican for Al Qaeda and specifically, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. It's as glossy and well created as anything in a western Magazine rack, too)

I think when they say extremist sites, they are referring to Jihad sites, sites promoting terrorism. Sites indoctrinating young people into believing killing innocent people is acceptable.

I dont think this is an extremist website by any stretch of the imagination

They will never catch the real masterminds though, as they dont use the web as you know it. A lot of the real extreme stuff will be hidden (inaccessible to most) on the darkweb.

How much do you wanna bet that French ATS members are gonna get locked up??? How much!??!

wow according to the quotes in the link, because I've visited sites like that, I'm a trainee terrorist on the same moral level as a phedophile wow

I... I'm speachless...

reply to post by monkofmimir


a government could easily track users and the sites they visit. i don't think this site is extremist; however, if this law passes, it's only a matter of time before we could all fall in the category of 'extreme'...politically or socially.

when federal agents investigate drug trafficking...through lets say wiretapping...

...interpretations of drug slang, code, can lead to a conviction...

...so even if a site or its visitors spoke in code or jargon...it could lead to jail.

Originally posted by loves a conspiricy

I dont think this is an extremist website by any stretch of the imagination

I've seen plenty of people here calling for revolution and not always peacfully, as well as other policies that could easily be argued as extremist, yes granted this place is quite mild compared to certain site I've seen but don't think for a second that this site couldn't be called extremist by tptb

i once read a thread on another forum, somewhat like this one...which you probably all are familiar, but which i won't name...

...that Zecharia Sitchin's entire series, was secret code discussing political and social subversion.

other books, for example...The Turner Diary's...already raise flags...and even being in possession of it could label a person subversive and a danger to society...

what, i am basically saying is that 'extreme' is subject to wide interpretation. even discussing specific topics, openly or in code, could lead to arrest in France if a law like this passed.

He's a politician. Do not take what he says at face value, dig deeper.

Extremist websites, is a very very broad term.

Republicans call occupy extremist.
Democrats call the tea party extremist.
Conspiracy theorists who deny 9/11 arab terrorists are usually extremists, thanks to Bush.
Talib Kweli was stopped at an airport, for watching Stokley Carmichael speeches on youtube..

and so forth. So think about that in the context of the millions of sites on the internet.

reply to post by michaelbrux


extremist is one of those meaningless words everyone is extremist to someone. everyone who is politically active even in the vaguest sense could be argued to be an extremist if the person arguing against them held diffrent beliefs

that's why i've been putting 'extreme' in quotes continually...

...its a loaded word, which anyone could fall afoul under the most unfortunate circumstances.

the strange thing is this...if the crime that led to Sarkozy proposing such a law had occurred in the United States and such a law was immediately proposed as a result...this site would have exploded...

in this country perhaps it would have been a proposal to curb gun rights.

the French have no gun rights...so they'll curb speech rights.

also look at the wide spead support of anonymous on ats, despite the fact that anonymous is essentially a terrorist organization, with a decetralized membership that attacks its enemies with illegal methods. support of a terrorist (or freedom fighter if you prefer) organization is surly extremist behaviour.

on a side note rock on anon

Originally posted by My.mind.is.mine
How much do you wanna bet that French ATS members are gonna get locked up??? How much!??!

i want 100 bucks for each locked up french ATS`r

Originally posted by michaelbrux

the strange thing is this...if the crime that led to Sarkozy proposing such a law had occurred in the United States and such a law was immediately proposed as a result...this site would have exploded...

yeah it is earily quiet on this thread considering the seriousness of its nature.

Just because it happens in france first doesnt mean it won't be coming to america in a few years, I can imagine most of the western countries will watch this with interest, hoping to follow the same path if it works in france

What he actually said was that anyone GLORIFYING Terrorists on the internet would be dealt with!

Second

reply to post by quedup


two posts up someone just gave props to Anonymous for their work.

does that count?

Originally posted by quedup
What he actually said was that anyone GLORIFYING Terrorists on the internet would be dealt with!

Second

I guess the question here that matters most is, who defines a terrorist when looking at the written words or images......and nothing more......can be enough to lose freedom and live in a concrete cell deep in some prison over.

Algeria was packed full of terrorists and anything even remotely related to them was material France would gleefully have used a law like this to great effect over. I agree with another poster that this should be far greater news than it is. Free Speech becomes a criminal offense in a Western Nation and European Union leader, at that.

..and the world is just a bit darker a place, thanks to Sarkozy.

If this passes, it is a scary precedent.

This law could be abused terribly by current or future governments, jailing people even for wanting to inform themselves.

Information should be free access to everyone. What if someone is writing a paper about Jihadists? Or wants to learn how to protect himself or his family from islamist propaganda?

If you make it illegal to visit a site, you make it illegal for people to form their own opinions.


I think what happened in Toulouse is a tragedy, but after the responses I have seen by the French government, I believe there is a chance that these were false flag attacks. A suspect killed before proven guilty and politicians urging for liberty-depriving reforms reeks of this.