Privacy and data protection
Privacy and data protection are essential for us to live, connect, work, create, organise and more. Governments and companies have long used mass surveillance for control trying to legitimise snooping for health, security or other reasons. The near-total digitisation of our lives has made it easier to control, profile and profit from our attention, data, bodies and behaviours in ways that are very difficult for us to understand and challenge. European data protection standards such as the GDPR are a good step forward but we need more to effectively ensure enforcement and protection against unlawful surveillance practices.
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Denmark will issue removal orders without court approval: Impacts on free speech and pro-Palestinian voices
Removal orders in the Terrorist Content Online (TCO) Regulation currently require prior court authorisation in Denmark, but this will soon change as a consequence of a political agreement to strengthen the fight against antisemitism. Together with a broadened definition of antisemitism focusing on the State of Israel, the already highly problematic TCO Regulation could be further leveraged by Danish authorities for arbitrary censorship of pro-Palestinian voices on social media.
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Croatian TikTok: A battleground between pro-EU and anti-EU narratives
Gong, a Croatian democracy watchdog organisation and EDRi member, published an analysis of the political narratives on TikTok during the national 2024 election campaign. The research explores the political narratives and environment on TikTok in the pre-campaign and campaign period for the Croatian parliamentary elections. It highlights a vibrant and intricate political landscape on TikTok in Croatia, marked by a division between democratic and anti-democratic narratives aimed at swaying the platform's younger audience.
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Mass hacking and fundamental rights: a missed opportunity for the Court of Justice of the Euorpean Union?
On 30 April 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its decision in the ‘EncroChat’ case. The case emerged from recent European police cooperation operations against organised crime, involving the mass interception of encrypted communications by means of spyware (‘hacking’).
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Age against the machine: the race to make online spaces age-appropriate
The race is on to make online spaces age-appropriate, but children’s best interest is no Olympic sport. While the internet was not designed with kids in mind, children, teens and young adults are now spending more time online than ever. Parents use video-sharing platforms to show cartoons to their toddlers, while kids and adolescents play online games, engage in social media, learn through online modules, and fashion their identities through their online activities.
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Statement: EU takes modest step as AI law comes into effect
The EU Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act will finally come into force on August 1, 2024. While it's disappointing that the final law did not put people and their rights at the centre, it still contains some silver linings.
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EDRi-gram, 10 July 2024
This is the last edition of EDRi-gram before we take a (well-deserved) break for the summer. Keeping you updated about the various goings-on in the busy world of digital rights is a toilsome task! Don’t worry, this edition is full of interesting news and recommendations for you to follow up on all summer long. You can start by going through a new document pool by the Resist Europol coalition that brings together all relevant resources you’ll need to understand and contest EU’s securitisation agenda, especially through the seemingly never-ending expansion of the bloc’s agency for law enforcement cooperation. With Hungary taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union as of last week, EDRi and 47 digital rights, human rights & children’s rights organisations have called for the withdrawal of the draft CSA Regulation proposal. It is high time to say good riddance to a proposal that is not only unfit for addressing the complex issue of child sexual abuse, but would also undermine private and safe online communication for all.
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Council of Europe approves AI Convention, but not many reasons to celebrate
EDRi-member ECNL is not rejoicing at the adoption of Council of Europe’s AI Convention because of the significant flaws in the final text
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Policing by design: the latest EU surveillance plan
The EU should reintroduce mass telecommunications surveillance and create backdoors to encrypted data, a new plan drafted in secret by police and security officials says. To do so, close coordination between the state and industry would be required, to ensure what the plan calls “lawful access by design.” The plan repeats demands made many times over the years by officials, and may find a warm reception from the incoming European Commission.
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Empowering people to flourish and thrive: A vision for our digital future
Together, we can protect human rights, strengthen democracy, and reshape societal systems. Read about our commitment to empowering people to flourish and thrive, as part of our Vision for 2024 and beyond.
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Apple must comply with the DMA, urges civil society call to European Commission
Civil society organisations and stakeholders have submitted an analysis to the European Commission about Apple’s attempts to circumvent the Digital Markets Act’s goals of allowing people freedom of choice on their own devices.
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Joint statement on the future of the CSA Regulation
On 1 July, EDRi and 47 civil society organisations sent a joint statement to the Hungarian Council Presidency and a number of member state permanent representatives. We call on the Council and European Parliament to demand that the European Commission withdraw the draft CSA Regulation.
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EDRi-gram, 26 June 2024
Summer seems to have finally arrived in Brussels, just in time for the heart of the EU to reel from the results of the European elections. Maybe having the sun will make it all bearable? Stay tuned as we test out this theory. We do have some positive news to share from the world of digital rights. Earlier this month, LinkedIn gave in to pressure from civil society and Digital Services Act (DSA) enforcers based on a complaint by EDRi and three partner organisations. The platform will no longer allow advertisers to target ads based on sensitive personal data from users. A big win for privacy! On a similar sunny note, EDRi and the Reclaim Your Face campaign were recently recognised as the Europe AI Policy Leader in Civil Society for our groundbreaking work advocating for a world free from biometric mass surveillance. Do you want to read more about the EDRi network’s impact on defending and advancing digital rights? Our 2023 Annual Report is out now for you to peruse!
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