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Final Copyright “compromise”: Upload filters for everyone but Google & Co
On 21 February, the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) Axel Voss issued his suggestion for a “compromise” on the Copyright reform, on which the Committee will vote in April.
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In the making: The largest internet filter Europe has ever seen
European policy makers are working on the largest internet filter we’ve ever seen.
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European Ombudsman shares EDRi’s concerns on Council transparency
On 13 February 2018, the European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly published a Recommendation regarding the transparency of the legislative work of the Council of the European Union. Her strategic inquiry, which involved the examination of the Council’s work around the legislative course of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), among other files, showed that the Council’s […]
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T-Mobile treats everyone equally unequally
The Dutch national regulatory authority, Authority for Consumers & Markets (ACM), has again decided that the mobile operator T-Mobile does in fact respect European net neutrality rules. EDRi-member Bits of Freedom believes the decision of ACM is short-sighted. On 8 February 2018, the regulatory authority published its decision on our objection to its decision on […]
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Don’t make your community Facebook-dependent!
Facebook is to invest tens of millions in “community leaders” – on the condition that the community leader uses the “Facebook family of apps and services”. EDRi member Bits of Freedom argues for reducing the role of Facebook in your community.
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India set to have the world’s strongest net-neutrality protections
On 28 November 2017, India’s communications regulator, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), recommended several net-neutrality protections be inserted into Internet Service Provider (ISP) licences.
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Copyright reform: The Bulgarian Presidency strikes back
Article 13 is a key issue in the discussions on the “Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market” that have been going on since 2016. It proposes requiring services that store content on the internet for users to “take measures, such as content recognition technologies, aimed at preventing the upload of […]
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General monitoring of communications to block “undesirable” content
Increasingly, demands are made that “something be done” about “undesirable” and “harmful” material on the internet: online child abuse images and other criminal pornography, “extremism”, “incitement to violence”, “hate speech”, – and more recently, “fake news”. Organisations representing holders of intellectual property (IP) rights similarly demand that measures be taken to prevent the sharing of […]
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LEAK: European Commission’s reckless draft Recommendation on “illegal” content
In September 2017, the European Commission adopted its widely criticised “Communication on Illegal Online Content.” Now, already, due to political pressure and internal competition between various European Commission services, a new Commission proposal for a Recommendation on the same subject is close to being shared with the Council for unanimous support, albeit not being legally […]
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European Parliament – fighting terrorism with closed-door secrecy
The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Terrorism (TERR) was established on 6 July 2017, for a renewable twelve-month mandate. The Committee was created with the ambitious aim of addressing ostensible practical and legislative deficiencies in the fight against terrorism across the European Union (EU) and with international actors.
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Data protection – time for action
On 24 January 2018, the European Commission (EC) published a Communication on the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), entering into force on 25 May 2018: “Stronger protection, new opportunities”.
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Germany: Constitutional complaint against intelligence agency BND
EDRi observer Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) has filed a constitutional complaint against surveillance by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). A new law that the German Parliament passed in October 2016 allows the BND to spy on foreign journalists. This destroys trust between journalists and their sources precisely in places where investigative journalism is […]
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