❊ What’s The Motivation Behind The Proposed Internet Law?

Khodr Salameh:

It is said that there is a fine line between ignorance and malice. Therefore, we cannot tell whether the new law reflects the aged political class’s ignorance of the nature of social and electronic media, or whether it is a deliberate bid to re-subject those who have escaped the oppression of Lebanese law to censorship and self-censorship.

I will go with malice hands-down. Ignorance is just the natural after-effect of Lebanese officialdom meddling with anything that has to do with the internet. We must not kid ourselves, this is not a clumsy attempt by the Lebanese government to regulate something it doesn’t understand, this is a frontal assault on the free internet that is using the Lebanese government as a tool.

There’s something very fishy, very SOPA-like, about the way the government is trying to sneak that law in without recourse the the usual discussions with stake holders. We have to be very aware that a fast, unbridled internet has a lot of enemies in Lebanon, from old media losing advertising revenue (anyone who knows how to advertise on Facebook would be crazy to advertise on, say, Al-Diyar), to sectarian media barons losing hold on political messages. These are powerful interest groups. They are the real forces behind the push. Demonizing Minister Daouk’s person or even his political party, is therefore a mistake.

The new law is not really a way to “organize” the internet or “protect” us online blabbermouths. This is a stick that the government wants to raise whenever it needs to punish “law-breaking” troublemakers. The intention of the law is simply to have a chilling effect.

Of course we are planning to fight this. There is now a movement afoot to protect the free internet in Lebanon. We are gathering ourselves and organizing because we are realizing that we can no longer take our internet freedom for granted. Stay posted for future updates about this, and if you’re interested in taking part of this movement, send me an email to beirutspring at gmail dot com , and make sure to spread the message..

Update: Online protesters are calling the new Lebanese internet law proposal ( L.I.R.A ), Acronyms for Lebanese Internet Regulation Act. The Twitter Hashtag is #StopLira