Italy's problem is not Europe, is Italy itself

The Country suffers the European decisions because of its political non weight in the EU. Instead of autocriticism national political class fed euroscepticism

by Emanuele Bonini

If 64% of EU citizens believe in the benefits of being part of the Europen Union, in Italy only 39% of the national population does, marking the lowest rate in Europe. Italy has thus become the most eurosceptic country among the 28 (soon 27) Member States. The change of mind of one the founders of the today European Union is something not be underestimated. It is not only the consequent result of never explained what the EU represent, but the lack of political engagement. The truth is Italy chose not to be part of the Brussels decision process. In the European Union of the Member States, this is certainly an epic fail. But here are all the Italian responsibilities. During last two decades the Italian government have merely thought to domestic affairs leaving to the other countries the duty of taking decisions. A totally absent Italy around the table, togheter with the lies told internally, contributed to feed an always growing euroscepticism in the Italian peninsula.

The uncapability of the Italian political class didn't make possible for the country to be an active player of the European debate. The case of Fiscal compact well shows how Italians live in a parallel dimension. Everybody, from left to right, complain about what is by definition an «inter-governmental» agreement. Inter-governmental means that decisions like the ones foreseen by such a compact were taken by national governments, not by «Europe». More and more in Italy the «blame and complain» game has been played against Europe. The same Matteo Renzi, who always claims to be a true committed pro-European, chose to talk against the European Union in his speeches. Instead of clearlt recall that decision are taken by Member States, he offered the idea of a country continously oppressed by «Europe». Unfortunately, a non-federal Europe cannot impose nothing but what its members agree among themselves. The European Commission only has the power of proposing legislations, and on the basis of these proposals national governments decide what to do.

Safe web and preventive censorship, a thin red line

Social media use to intervene against contents «allegded to be infringing,without prior notice», at their sole discretion. A controversial regime applied in name of proper use and security

by Emanuele Bonini (English version of my Eunews article)

Copyright infringements, incitement to racial or ethnic hatred, cheesecake picture or even porn content, violence. There are several cases of back out and removal of what is posted on-line. Such activities are carried out by the social media themselves, but in most of cases the reporting of inadequate posts and messages is left to the internet users. But who can really say what is right and what is wrong? diversity of opinions and different degree of susceptibility, risk to trigger a short-circuit in the network made by ‘lightly’ complaints with immediate consequences. Twitter, Blogger (the Google blog platform), Facebook and Istagram all have more or less the same conditions and terms of use (ToU) of their services. There is of course, as it’s right it is, a control of surfers. Nevertheless this policy control poses a certain question marks on the way it is applied, since in name of a ‘clean’ and safe web the risk of a real preventive censorship is there.

Presumption of guilt, preventive and discretionary removal
The network is vast, and the number of users – especially those of certain social media – virtually boundless. Monitoring everything that is written is not an easy task. And then the principle of preventive intervention applies. Blogger offers an example. The team can send at any time e-mails like the following:

 

«Blogger has been notified, according to the terms of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that certain content in your blog is alleged to infringe upon the copyrights of others. As a result, we have reset the post(s) to "draft" status. (If we did not do so, we would be subject to a claim of copyright infringement, regardless of its merits). If you believe that you have the rights to post the content at issue here, you can file a counter-claim».

The DMCA is a US copyright law that provides guidelines for online service provider liability in case of copyright infringement. What has to be noticed is that intervetions are made on the basis of possible infringement. Is a post ‘alleged to infringe’ the rules or in them violation? There is a huge difference between having an illegal situation or a situation thought to be illegal. Anyway, in case of doubt the giants of the internet carry out preventive censorship.
Having a look to the Twitter ToU, it is possible to read that «We reserve the right to remove Content alleged to be infringing without prior notice, at our sole discretion, and without liability to you». In return of being ‘responsibilities-free’, Twitter can basically do whatever the social media likes. Once again rules refer to contents presumed to be irregular, to be treated with immediate and not-communicated removal. The same policy applied to Facebook services. Once again, in case of a report from a rights owner claiming content on Facebook infringes their intellectual property rights, «we may need to promptly remove that content from Facebook without contacting you first. If you believe the content should not have been removed, you can follow up with them directly to try to resolve the issue». First complain, then delete. Only after try to negotiate. Instagram doesn’t act differently. «We reserve the right to modify or terminate the Service or your access to the Service for any reason, without notice, at any time, and without liability to you», states the terms of use of the photo-sharing service.