Rights group criticises EU web filter proposal

European digital rights group EDRi has criticised an EU proposal to block 'illicit contents' via web filtering.

The idea to create a 'virtual Schengen border', which would require ISPs to filter content via a blacklist, would not address the root of the problem of serious criminal content such as child abuse, EDRi told ZDNet UK on Wednesday.

"This band aid solution of blocking is being used as a justification for not taking real action," EDRi advocacy coordinator Joe McNamee told ZDNet UK on Wednesday. "You either take the difficult option of going after serious crime, or take the easy option of blocking crime and pretending it never happened."

McNamee said that once web blocking procedures were in place, function creep could set in. There is a case before the Danish courts at the moment where the intellectual property industry is trying to extend ISP child-abuse blocking technologies to intellectual property infringement cases.

In addition, effective web blocking needed to use invasive techniques such as deep packet inspection, which could go against privacy rights, said McNamee.