France's interior ministry has blocked five websites it accuses of condoning terrorism, and says it plans to target "dozens" of other similar websites.
"I do not want to see sites that could lead people to take up arms on the internet," Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told Agence France-Presse. "I make a distinction between freedom of expression and the spread of messages that serve to glorify terrorism. These hate messages are a crime." Two of the affected websites are the al-Hayat Media Center, which the interior ministry says has links to ISIS, and islamic-news.info.
Internet service providers have been told they have 24 hours to take "all necessary measures to block the listing of these addresses." The new rules regarding websites are part of counterterrorism measures approved by parliament in November.
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