EU wants to take control of the message?

Daniel Hannan over the Telegraph has an interesting blog post about the EU's plans and proposals to regulate blogs. Basically in a previous breifing note within the EU they raised complaints that that the Internet meant they could no longer get their message across because of opposition using online media.

Open Europe also have a post on the subject listening some of the things the EU wants to do. These appear to include,

Making it impossible to blog anonymously, and making significant bloggers declare their interests.

Slightly impractical and probably impossible unless the EU decides to create a fortress EU Internet and basically firewall the whole thing so we cannot host websites in other countries. As for declaring interests, I don't declare an interest when I make my opinions heard in the pub so why should I on the great big Speakers Corner that is the Internet?

Bloggers would be forced to give a right to reply to persons that are criticized in a blog post.

Anyone criticsed can get their own blog and do it there.

Bloggers should be pressed to voluntarily publish their “aims and background.”

Why must you have aims and what does your background matter? The first may not exist apart from having a soapbox, the second is clearly only being asked for so ad hominen cricumstantial fallacies can be inferred against people. i.e. You're saying X, you used to do Y, therefore Y is why you're saying X type crap.

People of a pro-european bent get rather upset and consider it somewhat hysterical when anyone raises the spectre of the Soviet Union, but in essence many of these things the EU is thinking about do have some rather worrying echoes. The control and regulation of dissent is a dangerous thing.