Wikipedia hides Italian edition as a protest to a new debated government law

Articolo scritto il: 5 Ottobre, 2011

Online speech restrictions are the subject for the new law called “DDL Intercettazioni”, proposed by Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi administration. This morning users had to deal with the first blackout of the Italian Wikipedia edition, due to a protest against a new government rule which will require blogs and website to publish corrections within 48 hours of content being found objectionable, without review.

Being debated in parliament this week, the new law will oblige online publications to publish a correction within 48 hours of receiving a request. The risk will be represented by a 12,000 euros fine (US$16,034) and anyone who will feel offended by any content will be entitled to request a corrected version. As Wikipedia reports, “every Italian citizen is already  safeguarded by section n.595 of Codice Penale (Penal Code), which concerns punishments for libel crimes”. Yet the opponents of the disputed rule are mainly irked by the fact that “the law does not require an evaluation of the claim by an impartial third judge and the opinion of the person allegedly injured is all that is required, in order to impose such correction to any Web sites”.

Since the message has been posted (and translated in Spanish and French), Italian users are already reacting by signing an online petition to keep the law from being passed. Thus far, more than 3700 people has subscribed the cause.

online petition link: http://www.petizionionline.it/petizione/salviamo-wikipedia/5179