Political attacks on Facebook pick up

by Anthony Smith (staff) | Friday, December 18th, 2009

One of Italy’s top politicians, Renato Schifani, yesterday labelled the social-networking website “more dangerous than the terrorist groups of the 70s” in an outburst aimed at online groups that incite to violence.

The comments made by the Senate speaker - one of the top political roles in the Italian parliamentary system - follow a political and media campaign to crack down on internet-sponsored violence in the wake of last Sunday’s attack on prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The social-networking website Facebook has been the target of much criticism from the government and blamed as a factor in spreading the “climate of hate” that led to the attack on Mr Berlusconi. Facebook groups named Uccidiamo Berlusconi (‘Let’s Kill Berlusconi’) and others dedicated to Massimo Tartaglia, Mr Berlusconi’s attacker, have been cited as proof of the dangers posed by the website.

Interior minister Roberto Maroni has tabled proposals for new powers to shut down websites that sponsor violence and these are currently under discussion in the cabinet.

Critics have compared the move to those by the totalitarian regimes in Iran and China that have used set restrictions or closed down social-networking sites like Facebook on the, arguably, dubious grounds that they encourage paedophilia on the net.