France had come up with a possible solution to solve cybercrimes done overseas which involve victims from France. France wanted to ratchet up its legal access over the availability of data from overseas tech companies.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve had announced that the proposed measure would be introduced by next week. The Minister had also called for the European Union to adopt the country's rules that will allow the french government in blocking websites which they believe recruit for extremists fighters and even call for terrorism.
The European Union had launched a voluntary program together with its counter terrorism coordinator, 28 Interior Ministers, European Parliament, major Internet firms, and Europol.
In their first attempt in their new program, France had blocked five websites they believed uphold terrorism. According to the minister, the website islamic-news.info was alleged to be linked to the Islamic State group. Internet service providers were ordered in relation to the ban to do their tasks in blocking the websites within 24 hours.
The banned websites which allegedly contain extremist content were Islamic News, Jihad Zone, Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, Jihadmin, and a website of a sympathizer of the al- Hayat Media Center. The latter published reports and videos of the militant group Islamic State. In a report, anyone within France that accessed the blocked websites would be redirected to the site of the Interior Ministry.
The french government's measure to block suspected websites of extremists was just one of their several counterterrorism laws which were adopted by the French parliament since 2014. This also marked the second practical application of a new counterterrorism legislation which now permits french officials to stop any suspected jihadists from leaving France.
Before, the requests to block certain suspected extremist websites should have a permit authorized by a judge. However, as of today, french police could make a decision to block a website even without a judge's permit.
If a website host was notified to put down their website for suspecting contents but refused or had not taken any actions within 24 hours, the authorities could immediately go to the internet service providers to block the website.
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