A new law under consideration by Italian Parliament would require any website “to publish, within 48 hours of the request and without any comment, a correction of any content that the applicant deems detrimental to his/her image.” To clarify: If, say, a Prime Minister of Italy were facing charges for bribery, corruption, collusion with the mob, statutory rape, embezzlement, anti-competitive control of the media, or bestiality, he (or she) could simply request the pages be removed for their (rightly) “detrimental” effect on his or her image, and without any third-party input, websites would be required to take objectionable articles down.
In protest, any Italian-language Wikipedia page now redirects to this warning, noting that while the pages are currently hidden, they will be deleted if this law passes.
This just rocks. Wikipedia.it is the sixth most-visited page in Italy, and Italy would be a demonstrably worse place without it. It’s great to see a grassroots entity committed to transparency and neutrality and also not afraid to kick some ass.
Italy is beyond fucked up.
Berlusconi has achieved levels of corruption that supersede all previously recorded attainments in this area. His numerous sex scandals exceed records set by Popes Julius III, Leo X, Sixtus IV, Paul II, Alexander VI, Benedict IX, John XII, John X, Sergius III, Pius IV, Paul III, and Julius II. His political scandals exceed the audacity of Mobutu Sese Soko, Sani Abacha, Suharto, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, Joseph Estrada, Papa and baby Doc Duvalier, Alberto Fujimori and Arnaldo Aleman.
I think this is part of his mystique. He doesn’t try to hide any of it, he’s not even trying to be subtle. It’s more like he’s trying to perfect corruption as an art form. Coupled with his references to Angela Merkel as an “unfuckable lardass”, his allegations that Chinese people “boil children alive and use the bodies to fertilize their fields”, he seems to be actively trying everything he can think of to discredit himself and his country. Like Eddie Murphy’s role in Brewster’s Millions, no matter how hard he tried not to get elected, they keep voting him in.
Maybe it’s because the Italian people really do love a good laugh more than anything else. Berlusconi is the ultimate comedian. The most important element in comedy is surprise, and he can always be counted on to say or do the most surprisingly inappropriate thing at any moment.
And really, accusing the Italian government of corruption or of scandal at this stage is low hanging fruit. Does Wikipedia really think they can do anything to damage Berlusconi’s reputation at this stage? Is there anything anyone can possibly say that will make the Italian government look any worse than it already does?
Kicking ass is what happens when you achieve a desired outcome. If the desired outcome here is to get the Italian government to not do the most blatantly corrupt thing imaginable in this case-that is, enforcing this stupid law-good luck with that.
Meanwhile the impending banking failure of Italy threatens to remove them, too, from the EU common currency, within 2-4 months after Greece is kicked out.
I wonder how accurate Amanda Knox’s Italian Wiki page is.
#5, if written by Berlusconi, it must feature nude photographs
Rather strict for a country that has some of the loosest copyright laws in the developed world.
I fully expect they’ll start burning people at the stake again.
So wait, would this apply only to websites hosted in Italy, or would any website viewable in Italy be subject to this law? I’m not sure how they plan to enforce it, since most sites can just be hosted outside the country.
@6, we can certainly hope so. She’s hot!