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Deutsch: Weißrussland übt starke Internetzensur aus

--- Article corrected on 23.01.2012----

6 January 2012 saw the application of the Belarusian law imposing even more restrictions on online free expression in a country that is already viewed as a dictatorship.

Thus, a new law is enacting the sanctions applied for the violation of the decree issued in February 2010 by President Alyaksandr Lukashenko (and entered into force in July 2010).

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Deutsch: US-Razzien gegen Domains und IP-Adressen gehen weiter

US authorities have resumed their "Operation in Our Sites" in order to attempt to fight counterfeit and piracy-related websites. During this second annual "Cyber Monday" crackdown, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has shut down 150 websites from all over the world.

The recent introduction of draft bills, such as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) now aims at providing a legal basis for domain names and IP address seizures.

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Deutsch: Türkei führt Internetfilter ein

Turkish Information Technologies and Communications Authority (BTK) launched the Internet safety scheme on 22 November 2011, as planned, but on a voluntary basis, following the fierce criticism and opposition to the original plans to introduce a mandatory filtering system.

Internet users may sign up with their ISPs for the free of charge filtering system which blocks "objectionable content", being able to choose from three variants: child, family and domestic.

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Deutsch: ENDitorial: Internet-Sperren in zehn Wochen

Within the next ten weeks, the European Parliament will finish its crucial first reading of the Directive which, if the European Commission has its way, will impose an EU-wide blocking infrastructure - undermining child protection, fundamental rights and the EU's voice on freedom and democracy in the world.

The measure proposed is quite interesting. The text reads as follows: "Member States shall take the necessary measures to obtain the blocking of access by Internet users in their territory to Internet pages containing or disseminating child pornography.

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Deutsch: Französischer Senat stimmt Netzsperren zu

The French Senate adopted on 10 September 2010 the law on known as Loppsi 2 (Original title: loi d'orientation et de programmation pour la performance de la sécurité intérieure).

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Deutsch: Europäische ISPs sollen Zugang zu Glücksspiel-Seiten sperren

As a result of a case introduced by Arjel (the new French online gambling regulating authority) against Gibraltar-based site stanjames.com which had not responded to the authority's formal request to stop its services to French users, on 6 August 2010, the Paris High Court ordered ISPs to block access to the gambling site, which had no licence from the French authorities.

The court also ordered the ISPs to screen certain messages to prevent users from circumventing the blocking measures which ISPs consider as a wrong measure.

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Deutsch: O2 Ireland sperrt harmlose Webseiten

The Irish mobile operator O2 has acknowledged accidentally blocking the image hosting website IMGUR through its system for blocking alleged child abuse material. There appears to have been no indication that there was, in fact, any illegal material hosted on that site.

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Deutsch: Netzsperren: Zunehmender Druck auf die Türkei

As Turkey continues its ban on Google's YouTube and other services, it attracts more and more criticism. After Turkey's President Abdullah Gul himself has taken position against its own government in this matter, it is now OSCE turn to react.

On 22 June 2010, Dunja Mijatovic, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, asked the Turkish authorities to restore access to Google's YouTube and other services and change the much-criticized Law No. 5651 (so-called Internet Law) in order to be in line with international standards on free expression.