European Union Parliament supports Internet Freedom and less censoring

The European Union's European Parliament (EP) has voted in favor of the mandate that ISPs and other regulators, including the Ofcom of UK, must not restrict EU citizens' internet usage.

Though the vote finalizes one means of promoting freedom of expression in the cyberworld, debates between the EP and the Council continue. The Council had a contrasting decision, and so discussions on the issue will move into the EU's conciliation procedure. In this situation, the EP and the Council must negotiate to arrive at a compromise agreement.

Often government regulations leads to less freedom

Discourse over Internet freedom ensued from the reorganization of the Telecoms Package 2002, especially the Framework Directive.

The reform brought about the idea of a 'three strikes' procedure advanced by French president Nicolas Sarkozy. The proposal was to ban people who committed criminal downloads and shared illicit files off the Internet for up to 12 months when they have done it for the third time.

Can the EU be trusted with Internet Freedom?

This is the second time the EP rejected Sarkozy's bid. In fact, while the proposition was being read for the first time, the EP created "Amendment 138".