Constitutional body in France rejects bill against surfing ‘terror’ websites

Amid growing concerns in France over terror threats, the supreme constitutional authority in the country has struck down a legislative motion to criminalize the surfing of “terrorist” websites for the second time this year, saying such a measure is against civil liberties.

The French Constitutional Council rejected on Friday the proposed bill passed by the country’s lawmakers as “neither adequate, nor proportional,” saying that the legislation violates freedom of expression and communication.

The bill calls for punishment of anyone visiting “terrorist” websites “without any legitimate reason” to “two years of imprisonment and a €30,000 ($35,250) fine.”

It refers to the websites which are usually affiliated to Takfiri terror groups such as Daesh and seek to radicalize people.

The advocates of the legislation argue that the looming threat of terrorist attacks make it worth sacrificing certain liberties for the sake of safety.

The bill was previously rejected by the Constitutional Council back in February, prompting French lawmakers to introduce changes that supposedly clarified surfing restrictions.

The latest version of the legislation authorizes individuals to visit a “terrorist” website if the visitor is able to “prove” it is for “public information or scientific research.” However, the bill was again rejected by the Council.

The development came after the French parliament approved in October a new controversial anti-terrorism law that made permanent parts of the two-year state of emergency, enacted following the 2015 attacks.

That legislation led to a severe backlash over its potential to limit civil liberties.

However, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb justified it by cautioning that “nobody is safe” and France “is still in a state of war.”

Human Rights Watch, which has been vocally opposing the legislation since it was first introduced, hailed the ruling by the Constitutional Council as a “welcome respite from France’s rush to adopt restrictive counterterrorism measures at the cost of rights and freedoms,” further insisting that the amendments introduced to the bill were purely cosmetic and did not change its nature.  

Observers also say the approval of the measure could play into the hands of politicians and set the stage for criminalizing any website deemed as “terrorist.”

Prior to the original bill’s defeat in December 2016, a 32-year-old Frenchman was sentenced to two years in jail and a fine after police discovered during a raid that he was regularly browsing websites affiliated with the Daesh terrorist group.

The probe further found that the suspect was using a Daesh flag as a cover photo on his PC and downloaded the terror group’s propaganda images, including execution videos, on his phone.

SS