EUrocrats engage Fear Mode
Insert scare quotes as appropriate:
Euro MPs are preparing to vote on proposals for European Union regulation of blogs with the aim of countering a “dangerous” and unregulated blogosphere.
Marianne Mikko, an Estonian centre-left MEP, is concerned that growing numbers of blogs are being used by individuals with “malicious intentions or hidden agendas”.
“The blogosphere has so far been a haven of good intentions and relatively honest dealing. However, with blogs becoming commonplace, less principled people will want to use them,” she said.
Mrs Mikko has proposed that bloggers should be required to identify themselves and that some popular blogs should come with a declaration of interests.
“We do not need to know the exact identity of bloggers. We need some credentials, a quality mark, a certain disclosure of who is writing and why. We need this to be able to trust and rely on the source,” she said.
And guess who’s going to issue those “credentials”?
Once again, the bureaucrats seek to insulate themselves from the rabble:
Thursday’s vote in the European Parliament is not legally binding but is an indicator of growing EU concern over the influence of blogs on the internet.
A recent internal European Commission report, leaked three weeks ago, found that the EU was losing the battle for hearts and minds online.
“Blog activity remains overwhelmingly negative,” it said.
But of course. I need hardly point out that the EU isn’t about to suggest that they might actually deserve to lose the battle for hearts and minds online: the first order of business of any contemporary government is to convince itself that it’s Doing the Right Thing. (The American left clings to this conviction like lint to your favorite fall sweater.)
And it’s not like any blogs are actually going to be shut down, right?
McGehee »
25 September 2008 · 11:56 am
I’ll spare you and everyone yet another reiteration of how I saw this coming. Is there a masculine version of the name “Cassandra?”
Don »
25 September 2008 · 12:34 pm
It’s a real bitch when powerful elite can’t control the unwashed masses.
And, let’s not get all haughty taughty, we have the similar attempts here to control free speech in the form of political correctness, campus speech codes and the Fairness Doctrine.
McGehee »
25 September 2008 · 3:49 pm
And that’s not even getting into what supporters of presidential candidates (or one of them, anyway) are doing about a certain book they don’t want people knowing about before the election.