KB wants to prevent online abuse of ‘Nazi documents’

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The Koninklijke Bibliotheek has promised the Ministry of Justice to take ‘technical measures’ to prevent Nazi documents available on the internet from being misused. Publication by the KB is not punishable by law.

Last month, discussion arose about the plan of the KB in The Hague to scan certain Nazi texts, including editions of the NSB newspaper Volk en Vaderland, and publish them online. Consultations between the KB and the Ministry of Justice showed that the online publication of potentially discriminatory texts could result in prosecution. This conclusion in turn gave rise to parliamentary questions.

In reaction to those parliamentary questions, Minister of Justice Hirsch Ballin has now announced that there will be no prosecution, because prosecution will only take place if the statements are made ‘other than for business reporting’. The condition that the minister sets for online publication is that it is ‘surrounded with due care’.

With these guarantees, the minister refers to technical measures already promised by the KB. These must prevent misuse of discriminatory texts and counter ‘unbridled digital dissemination’. Hirsch Ballin is still in consultation with the library about the elaboration of those facilities.

In his answer, Hirsch Ballin already mentions some of those possibilities. For example, users could be warned before viewing the texts that misuse and distribution may be punishable. He also mentions the possibility of hindering the downloading of texts ‘as far as technically feasible’.

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