Clean IT

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Clean IT is a European Union project to combat illegal content on the Internet .

It is based on the concept of public-private partnership - the mobilization of private capital and knowledge to fulfill governmental tasks - between European security authorities and various IT companies.

The declared goal of Clean IT is to develop voluntary guidelines for the IT industry that prevent product users (e.g. users of a web browser) from accessing terrorist content. The aim is to “ restrict terrorist use of the Internet ” and “fight illegal use of the Internet”.

description

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström

The start of the project was announced in April 2011 by Ivo Opstelten , Minister for Security and Justice of the Netherlands , at the Ministerial Cybercrime Conference (English for 'Ministerial Conference on Computer Crime ') in Budapest . It explicitly takes a non- legislative approach. The consultation of national and supranational parliaments is therefore expressly not provided for.

The aim of the measure is a comprehensive control of the network content, initially on an EU level, and later, if possible, on a global level.

The advertising slogan of the project is: "Clean IT - Fighting the illegal use of the Internet" (in German: "Clean IT - The fight against the illegal use of the Internet").

The project is being realized with the financial support of the program for the prevention and the fight against crime (English original title Prevention of and Fight against Crime Program ) of the commissioner for justice, freedom and security . At the beginning of 2010 this office was split into two separate departments. Since then, the EU Commissioner for Internal Policy , Cecilia Malmström , who is known for her restrictive positions in questions of network policy, has been responsible for questions of internal security .

The development of the targeted clean IT standard is coordinated with the so-called notice-and-takedown concept , which is overseen by the Directorate-General for the Internal Market and Services and which essentially pursues the protection of copyrights .

The development of the specifications and the coordination with companies in the IT industry should be completed by the beginning of 2013 at the latest.

actors

In addition to the leading Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security, the state partners are the German Federal Ministry of the Interior , the British Home Office , the Belgian Coordination Unit for Threat Assessment , the Spanish Centro Nacional de Coordinación Antiterrorista de España and Europol .

But Klaasen , the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security , on whom the internet domain cleanitproject.eu is registered, is considered to be the driving force behind the project . Klaasen is a member of the social liberal Democrats 66 .

The following non-governmental partners are listed on the project homepage as of September 30, 2012, whereby it is pointed out that they do not have to agree with the final result achieved:

  • International Network Against Cyber ​​Hate (INACH)
  • Ligue Internationale Contre le Racisme et l'Antisémitisme (LICRA)
  • Association des Fourisseurs d'Acces et de Services Internet (AFA)
  • Internet Society Belgium (ISOC-BE)
  • Hosting company Leaseweb
  • Dutch computer end user organization (HCC)
  • Pirate Party Switzerland (represented by Vice President Pascal Gloor)
  • Prof. Dr. Manuel R. Torres Soriano (Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla)
  • Ms Yuliya Morenets, representative of 'Together against Cybercrime' (TAC)
  • Asiem El Difraoui, Science and Politics Foundation
  • Euvision
  • Atos Spain
  • Special Telecommunications Service, Romania
  • Kosmozz
  • International Association of Internet Hotlines (INHOPE)
  • N-Square Consulting
  • S21Sec
  • Community Security Trust

But Klaasen stated in an interview for the Australian itnews that ideally the developer companies of web browsers ( Mozilla Firefox , Microsoft Internet Explorer , Apple Safari , Google Chrome ) should be involved, but none of these companies has officially commented on it.

concept

The involvement of national and supranational parliaments is expressly not intended.

Those responsible justify the expressly non-legislative approach as follows:

“The alliance, principles and practices are intended to be non-legislative as they are adopted on a voluntary basis with industry support. It should be possible to implement them quickly, in every EU country or even worldwide. Still, it is possible that one of the results is calls for better regulation by governments. "

- Project FAQ

At the same time, the importance of freedom and privacy on the Internet is emphasized:

“The aim of this project is not to restrict freedom on the Internet, but on the other hand we are concerned with security issues and want to limit the use of the Internet for terrorist purposes. We are aware that the openness, privacy and security of the Internet are three sides of a triangle that should be properly balanced. "

- Project FAQ

While the official communication of the project regularly repeats the fight against terrorism on the Internet with great emphasis, a published document draws a significantly expanded framework. It explains that the Internet is also used for “ computer crime , hate speech , discrimination , illegal software, child pornography and terrorism”.

Elsewhere, the following topics are directly related to the planned measures against terrorism: animal rights, left-wing extremist, racist, religious, right-wing extremist, separatist and all other terrorist and extremist organizations and individuals.

activities

According to the responsible project manager But Klaasen, 13 different best practice measures had been developed by June 2012 .

One of the planned measures would enable Internet users in the future to mark content that appears illegal to them with a 'flag' while surfing and to report this on. Access and hosting providers should offer their customers flagging systems to make this possible. Corresponding reports would first be recorded by the service providers and then forwarded to the authorities.

Another planned measure calls on national governments to form national recommendation groups in which the content labeled in this way is checked for legality by experts. All content considered illegal should subsequently be removed from the network by the access and hosting providers as part of a recommended notice-and-takedown measure .

There are also plans to store databases with content that has not yet been named with the authorities. These are to be removed from the servers using the mechanisms implemented in the notice-and-takedown procedure .

Conferences

The first meeting of the project partners took place within the framework of the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (2011 EuroDIG) on May 31, 2011 in Belgrade . Further conferences were held in Amsterdam in late October 2011 and in Madrid (January 2012) and Brussels (March 2012) in the following months . Another meeting took place on June 4th and 5th, 2012 in Berlin .

After the EuroDIG on June 15 in Stockholm , a meeting took place in London in September 2012 , and another on November 5 and 6 in Vienna , hosted by Clean IT's new partner, the Austrian Federal Ministry of the Interior .

criticism

Individual trade media criticize that the flagging project is reminiscent of the attempt by the German, controversial White IT initiative, supported by Uwe Schünemann , to install a "delete now" button, or the "emergency call button" promoted by the EU Commission and police units “For the internet. Other critics emphasize that the project, similar to ACTA, first creates facts and then discusses the meaningfulness and effects when it may be too late for a fundamental discussion. In this context, the process was referred to as an example of path dependency .

On September 21, 2012, an internal document of the Clean IT project was published by the civil rights movement European Digital Rights , from which observers read the project's attempt to introduce comprehensive monitoring of Internet traffic in Europe. According to the document, private companies (e.g. providers) should undertake to preventively filter out unpleasant - including legal - content from online communication. Subsequently, the filtered out events should be reported to the law enforcement authorities. The reportable processes "should not be defined in great detail" in the provider's terms and conditions.
Netzpolitik.org lists selected suggestions from the document:

  • Creation of laws that authorities can patrol online, including (presumably anonymous) participation in online discussions
  • Removal of laws that prohibit the filtering and monitoring of Internet connections with employees in companies
  • Law enforcement authorities should be able to have content removed "without labor-intensive and formal procedures such as 'Notice and Action'"
  • Linking “knowingly” to “terrorist content” should be just as punishable as the terrorist content itself
  • Creation of a legal basis for mandatory real names to prevent anonymous use of online services
  • Providers should be held liable if they fail to make “reasonable” efforts * to use surveillance technology to identify (undefined) “terrorist” use of the Internet.
  • Companies that provide Internet filters and their customers should be liable if they fail to report "illegal" activities detected by filters
  • Customers should be held liable if they “knowingly” report something that is not illegal
  • Governments should use the provider's willingness to help as a criterion for awarding public contracts
  • Social media platforms should use systems for blocking and "warning". On the one hand, it is somehow illegal to provide (undefined) internet services for "terrorist persons", on the other hand, known illegal content should be delivered but provided with a warning.
  • The anonymity of people who (presumably) report illegal content should be preserved. But the IP address has to be logged so that you can track people who have deliberately reported legal content.
  • Companies should use upload filters so that content (or similar) that has been removed cannot be uploaded again
  • Content should not always be removed, but sometimes only "blocked" by the hosting provider and the domain removed

Sebastian Nerz , Deputy Federal Chairman of the German Pirate Party, assessed the project as an invitation to companies to circumvent the censorship prohibition of the Basic Law.

After the publication of the document, EU Commissioner Malmström distanced herself from the content; the EU Commission had no way of influencing the content of the project. The EU Commission does not intend to enforce this content or "intervene in the freedom of the Internet".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Andre Meister: Clean IT: The EU wants to keep the Internet “clean” and “healthy”. In: netzpolitik.org . February 24, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (German).
  2. ↑ a b About the project. In: cleanitproject.eu. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
  3. ^ The Clean IT Project. In: cleanitproject.eu. Retrieved September 20, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Intellectual Property. In: europa.eu. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Brett Winterford: Clean IT project considers terrorist content database. In: itnews.com.au. June 6, 2012, accessed September 30, 2012 .
  6. ↑ But Klaasen. In: 66heemstede.nl. Retrieved September 30, 2012 (Dutch).
  7. ^ Partners and Participants. In: cleanitproject.eu. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
  8. ^ Statement on the Clean IT Project. In: Homepage of the Pirate Party Switzerland . September 25, 2012, archived from the original on September 28, 2012 ; accessed on September 30, 2012 (English).
  9. ↑ a b Frequently Asked Questions. In: cleanitproject.eu. Retrieved September 30, 2012 .
  10. ↑ a b Clean It Draft version 0.2, December 24, 2011, quoted from Clean IT: The EU wants to keep the Internet “clean” and “healthy” . netzpolitik.org, February 24, 2012, accessed June 7, 2012.
  11. ↑ a b Stefan Krempl: Clean IT: Users should report illegal sites. In: Heise online . January 4, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (German).
  12. ^ EU "Clean IT" Project Considers Terrorist Content Database. In: slashdot.org. June 6, 2012, accessed September 30, 2012 .
  13. ↑ a b Progress Report Clean IT project November 2011. (PDF; 36 kB) In: Clean IT Project. November 16, 2011, archived from the original on February 2, 2013 ; accessed on September 30, 2012 (English).
  14. ↑ Next Clean IT events. In: cleanitproject.eu. September 13, 2012, accessed September 30, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Clean IT: Malmström sees "misunderstanding". In: Futurezone . September 26, 2012, accessed September 30, 2012 .
  16. ↑ cf. z. B. Software to prevent child pornography from being displayed heise.de, March 8, 2012 , accessed on June 7, 2012.
  17. ↑ Erich Moechel: CleanIT: Clean Internet like in Iran. In: FM4 . September 23, 2012, accessed on September 24, 2012 (German).
  18. ↑ CleanIT - Plans to Monitor the Internet on a Large Scale. In: unwatched.org. September 21, 2012, archived from the original on November 13, 2012 ; accessed on September 24, 2012 (German).
  19. ^ Clean IT Project: Clean IT project - Detailed recommendations document for best practices and permanent dialogue. (PDF; 3.3 MB) October 28, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (English).
  20. ↑ Andre Meister: Clean IT: The EU Commission wants to monitor and filter the Internet without any laws. In: Netzpolitik.org . September 21, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (German).
  21. ↑ Roland Peters: EU wants to filter all internet data. In: n-tv . September 24, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (German).
  22. ↑ Clean IT: EU not responsible for content ( memento from January 25, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  23. ↑ Hakan Tanriverdi: EU project wants to clean up the Internet. In: Der Spiegel . September 26, 2012, accessed on September 30, 2012 (German).