A report that will be voted on in the European Union parliament March 12 could lay the groundwork for laws banning pornography across all media — including the Internet — and could potentially restrict civil liberties, free speech advocates claim. The broader aim of the sweeping proposal, which was introduced by left-leaning parliamentarian Kartika Liotard of the Netherlands, is to foster gender equality in the EU by combatting gender stereotypes on many fronts. To that end, the opinion recommends a “ban all forms of pornography in the media,” including what it calls “the digital field.” It also calls for the establishment of regulatory agencies with “a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls.” Although the vote on the report is not legally binding, if passed, the proposal could end up influencing EU law.

Posted: Yesterday Paul Joseph WatsonInfowars.com Inventor and scientist Danny Hillis warns that the Internet has “expanded it way beyond its limits,” and is set for a “disaster,” calling for an ‘Internet Plan B’ that would operate in times of emergency. Hillis is the founder of Thinking Machines Corporation, which developed the Connection Machine, a series of supercomputers designed by Hillis while he was working at MIT. Speaking to Wired’s Michael V

(AFP Photo / Peter Muhly) An upcoming UN-organized conference on global communications aims to hammer out a treaty to safeguard “the free flow of information around the world.” Google is fighting back, saying the treaty threatens the “free and open Internet.” Representatives from UN member-states will gather in Dubai from December 3 through 14 with the explicit aim of working out a new universal information and communication treaty that would regulate the Internet.The conference, organized by the UN’s International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) has reignited a fierce debate over who should control the Web.Google has remained unequivocal in its stance that the closed-door meeting a power grab aimed at ending public control of the Internet and strangling free speech:“A free and open world depends on a free and open Internet. Governments alone, working behind closed doors, should not direct its future. The billions of people around the globe who use the Internet should have a voice,” Google said on its ‘Take Action’ advocacy website.Google, which has consistently taken a self-regulatory approach to the Internet, called the Dubai conference the “wrong place” to make decisions on the future of the Internet.The Internet giant argued that the 42 countries set to decide the future of the Net have already moved to censor it, and that the number of regulations is only growing.”Some proposals could permit governments to censor legitimate speech – or even allow them to cut off Internet access,” Take Action explained