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Google fined 1,5 billion euro for abusive online ad practices
On 20 March, the European Commission imposed yet another massive fine, 1,5 billion euro, on Google. The Commission Directorate-General for Competition stated that the data company has abused its dominant position in the online advertising market by imposing restrictive contracts with third-party websites that prevented rivals from placing their search adverts on these websites.
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GDPR incompatibility – the blind spot of the copyright debate
The debate around the Copyright Directive reform has been intense. Former Article 13, which became Article 17 in the text voted by the European Parliament on 26 March, created the greatest controversy between stakeholders arguing about the so-called “value gap” in the creative sectors, upload filters, and a new platform liability regime, among others issues. […]
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EU Parliament stands up against censorship machine
Today, on 26 March, the European Parliament voted against adopting the controversial upload filters as part of the copyright Directive text. This vote comes after what was an intense campaign for human rights activists, with millions of calls and emails from concerned individuals, as well as Europe-wide protests. XXX Members of the European Parliament adopted […]
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All you need to know about copyright and EDRi
The last vote on the Copyright Directive’s final text is set to take place on 26 March. Ahead of this crucial vote in the European Parliament plenary, here is some background on EDRi’s priorities around this topic.
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The art of dodging questions – Facebook’s privacy policies
Remember in April 2018, after the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, we sent a series of 13 questions to Facebook about their users’ data exploitation policy. Months later, Facebook got back to us with answers. Here is a critical analysis of their response. Recognising people’s face without biometric data? The first questions (1a and 1b) related […]
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FSFE: Publicly funded software has to result in public code
As the European Parliament elections approach, EDRi member Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) intensifies the efforts for the “Public Money? Public Code!” campaign. In January 2019, FSFE published a new brochure to serve as guidelines for decision-makers, explaining the fundamental benefits of public code. Free Software for a Free Society Free and Open Source Software […]
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Record number of calls to the EU Parliament against upload filters
With just two weeks to go until the final vote on upload filters in the European Parliament, one hundred MEPs have pledged to vote against Article 13 of the proposed Copyright Directive. Many citizens feel like their legitimate fears about the future of the internet are not taken seriously as lawmakers insult them as being […]
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What will happen to our memes?
In Europe, new rules concerning copyright are being created that could change the internet fundamentally. The consequences that the upload filters included in the EU copyright Directive proposal will have for our creativity online raise concerns. Will everything we want to post to the internet have to pass through “censorship machines”? If the proposed Directive […]
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Women’s rights online: tips for a safer digital life
The internet is an incredible tool and has empowered women to speak up, react and organise to face patriarchy and oppression. But the internet is not a neutral place – sexist, racist, homophobic and other violent types of behaviour and content are disproportionately affecting women. This International Women’s Day, we would like to celebrate positive […]
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Join us in the European Parliament to #SaveYourInternet!
After more than 3 years of debates, the decisive moment to ensure that upload filters are not imposed in the European Union (EU) has arrived. In the following weeks (date to be confirmed), the European Parliament (EP) will be voting on the copyright Directive. In its current form, article 13 of the copyright Directive would […]
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The European Parliament’s deplorable lack of impartiality
As the political debate around the European copyright reform and its infamous upload filters enters the final round, the EU institutions commit yet another faux pas. On 27 February 2019, the European Parliament’s communications team published a number of tweets celebrating how amazing the copyright Directive proposal is that has been agreed during trilogues. The […]
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Light at the end of the cyber tunnel: New IoT consumer standard
In February 2019, positive advancements were made regarding security standards in consumer Internet of Things (IoT) devices: The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) published a standard numbered TS 103 645, more appealingly named “Cyber Security for Consumer Internet of Things”. Under this new standard, compliant products will be expected to have unique passwords, a vulnerability […]
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