An EU proposal to prevent people from accessing bomb-making instructions online has been dismissed as unworkable.
EU Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini says he is working on plans that would block web searches for bomb recipes and oblige Internet Service Providers to prevent access to sites containing them.
At present, crude bomb-making guides are readily available.
'I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism,' Mr Frattini said.
He is expected to present his proposals in the next few weeks as part of a package of anti-terrorism measures. They are likely to lead to fierce debate over feasibility and cost.
Many in the internet industry are adamant that such ideas are doomed to fail.
A spokesperson for search engine Google, said there are certain situations already in which the company blocks search results.
In France and Germany it is illegal to show certain Nazi-related sites, so they are removed from google.fr or google.de search results.
