Pointless Proposal: EU Seeks to Ban Access to Bomb-Making Instructions Online

By Aaron Mannes

The EU is considering a proposal that would ban websites that post instructions on bomb-making. The proposal is interesting because it does not appear to focus on criminalizing the websites. Instead it puts the burden on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to these sites. While the EU says this is a not an infringement on speech, the ISPs are balking. First it would be a tremendous technical hassle for them and if they failed to successfully block the sites they could be held liable on criminal charges. Obviously a fair degree of self-interest is at play here. However, there is a freedom of speech issue – at least hypothetically - since the ISPs are being asked to do to their customers what countries like China and Saudi Arabia do to their citizens online.

It has the potential to be a big fight – and a somewhat pointless one. First, it won’t work. The Internet is a big place and the ability to migrate information and conceal it is limitless. Secondly, and perhaps more is that it is not really necessary. The major successful terror attacks have all had links to real world training and experience. The record of self-taught bomb-makers is terrible. The recent plot in Germany was serious because the individuals had had training in Pakistan. But the self-taught cells, like the Doctors Cell of this summer, have not been able to construct successful explosive devices.

Although it is conventional wisdom that anyone can build a bomb off the Internet, so far the reality does not support this contention.

The squawk over censoring access to bomb-making sites may distract the EU from the other, more serious counter-terror proposals in the package such as collecting airline passenger data from every flight in or out of Europe and a rapid alert system for lost and stolen explosives. These are the real elements of successful terror strikes – travel to major training centers (such as in London 7/7) and/or acquisition of actual explosives (such as Madrid 3/11).

To some extent one can sympathize with the EU's action. It is a way to appear to be doing something substantial and pressuring ISPs is far easier than pressuring Pakistan or Syria. However, if the EU is willing to endorse high level monitoring of Internet activity, than it would probably be more fruitful to set up online "honeypots" on bomb-making to attract potential terrorists and then track them down.

Finally, the debate over ISPs monitoring their customers’ traffic has another important angle – and this debate over bomb-making websites may distract from it as well. ISPs could play a much stronger role in preventing and breaking up the botnets and other cyber-crime activity that is growing so severe that it could threaten the operation of the web itself (see my piece in the Wall Street Journal Europe on the cyber-spat between Russia and Estonia.) If the ISPs are going to be pressed into this kind of activity - it ought to be for a good purpose.

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