When in Rome, you may not be able to get on Facebook

The Italian Senate has passed a law that will force Internet providers to block access to sites if they incite or justify criminal behavior.

While the law provides the right to block any site, Facebook is squarely in the firing line, after Italian prosecutors began looking into Facebook groups dedicated to convicted Sicilian Mafia bosses Bernardo Provenzano and Salvatore Riina last month, according to Bloomberg.

“The Internet must be free, but it can’t be a jungle where good people and murderers are indistinguishable,” Senator Gianpiero D’Alia said “It’s indecent that Facebook said that it won’t allow pictures of mothers breastfeeding while there are no rules about removing groups of delinquents…It’s only right that Facebook be blacked out.”

The bill allows for the Government to first demand that inappropriate content be removed, and then if it isn’t, for a ban to be put in place.

The measure must pass in the Chamber of Deputies before formally becoming law.

Typical though of censorship regimes: they always start with a basic premise, but end up blocking a whole lot more. Coming soon to the internet in Australia I might add.