The move comes amid efforts by political elites to accept the key historic events of 2016, including Brexit, Donald Trump's win in the US presidential elections, the failure of the Italian referendum, and the victory of "populist" forces, independent political commentator Marco Fontana said in his article for Sputnik Italy.
"It is time to clarify the following: Facebook can no longer be considered a resource with certain content. If people in their Facebook pages call for racial hatred and promote xenophobia, then it is necessary to bring to justice not only those who issued such messages but also those who made it possible that it will be read, perhaps, all over the world," Fontana quoted Orlando as saying.
"But this does not mean that we want to ban Facebook. This means that we want to grapple with the threat that hangs over democracy in our countries," Orlando added.
Commenting on this, Fontana said that "at first glance, it seems that the Italian Minister of Justice focused on the fight against racial hatred in the Internet."
"But his [plans] actually look like [efforts to create] a Trojan horse, because they once again indicate the Western establishment's persistent unwillingness to heed public discontent," Fontana said.
"This is nothing more than the self-preservation instinct of the Italian political class and Western politicians in general. They pay lip-service to human rights and values just to use them against their political opponents and to put them on the back burner afterwards," according to him.
Fontana also referred to last year's resolution against Sputnik and RT, which was approved by the European Parliament.
"The document fully reveals the 'morality' of the Italian political class. It is an attempt to become censors who decide what is true and what is fake as well as decide what the media should publish and ignore," he said.
Fontana also drew attention to the fact that the past few months have seen especially heavy-handed attempts by Western governments to limit the freedom of citizens to receive information wherever they want by "conducting the most grandiose global screening in order to avoid responsibility for policy failures in their own countries."
He pointed out that the world elites' fear to accept the new reality damages the fundamental rights of citizens, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.
"Apparently, Minister Orlando's measures are little more than a desire to convince us of the need to protect the existing means of communication, which have already proven their ability to protect the establishment from upheavals," Fontana concluded.
