Our work
EDRi is the biggest European network defending rights and freedoms online. We work to to challenge private and state actors who abuse their power to control or manipulate the public. We do so by advocating for robust and enforced laws, informing and mobilising people, promoting a healthy and accountable technology market, and building a movement of organisations and individuals committed to digital rights and freedoms in a connected world.
Filter resources
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Upload filters? Still no, thanks
Together with thousands of protestors, EDRi has fought against mandatory upload filters in the Copyright Directive. Despite the Directive having been adopted, including the infamous Article 13 (now 17) that could lead to upload filters, the Directive allows for some flexibility to prevent the worst impacts on our freedom of expression.
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Keep private communications private
On 27 July, the European Commission published a Communication on a EU strategy for a more effective fight against child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The Communication indicates that messaging services (WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger…) may see their privacy protections undermined under new legislation that will be proposed this week.
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Down with (discriminating) systems
Amidst a particularly hectic time for digital rights policy in Europe, there remains a large elephant in the room.
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Digital Services Act: what we learned about tackling the power of digital platforms
A year into EDRi’s policy and advocacy efforts to improve the DSA, we take stock of our efforts in mapping challenges and successes in enabling positive change.
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ICAO mandates worldwide government surveillance of air travelers
Playing out the endgame we predicted last year of a two-decade campaign by the US government to establish a global regime of government surveillance of air travelers, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has adopted an amendment to the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation that will require each of the 193 state parties to that treaty — essentially every national government in the world — to require all airlines operating international flights to provide a designated government agency with complete mirror copies of all reservation records (“Passenger Name Records“) in a standard PNRGOV transmission format.
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First Analysis of the Austrian Anti-Hate Speech Law (NetDG/KoPlG)
On September 3rd the Austrian government released a legislative package to tackle online hate speech. Besides a comprehensive justice reform, the package also contains a bill that creates new obligations for online platforms to remove illegal user-generated content. This article offers a first analysis of the so called Kommunikationsplattformen-Gesetz (KoPl-G) and the many similarities it has to the German Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz (NetzDG).
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EDRi demands an open, safe and accountable internet – will you join us?
Today, 19th August 2020, European Digital Rights (EDRi) submitted its response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Digital Services Act package. In addition, EDRi releases its official DSA Consultation Answering Guide designed to help other civil society organisations, collectives and citizens with an interest in upholding human rights to submit their own response to the European Commission.
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SHARE Foundation presents #hiljadekamera : A documentary on biometric mass surveillance
SHARE Foundation has recently released a short documentary on the controversial use of the mass surveillance system in Belgrade, Serbia. Various digital experts and activists took part in the documentary, including the national Data Protection Authority in Serbia and EDRi's own Policy and Campaigns Officer, Ella Jakubowska.
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IBM’s facial recognition: the solution cannot be left to companies
On 8 June 2020, IBM’s CEO announced to the US Congress that – on the grounds of “justice and racial equity” – the company would “sunset” its “general purpose” facial recognition technologies. EDRi has addressed the company through a letter, but IBM's response suggests the organisation is motivated by public relations, instead of fundamental rights.
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A victory for us all: European Court of Justice makes landmark ruling to invalidate the Privacy Shield
Today, 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) invalidated the EU-US Privacy Shield. The ruling proves a major victory for EU residents on how their personal data is processed and used by platforms like Facebook.
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EDRi-gram 18.13, 8 July 2020
"We are learning that a true universal approach recognises marginalisation in order to protect it. In order to protect digital rights for all we must understand these differences, highlight them, and then fight for collective solutions"
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Europol: Non-accountable cooperation with IT companies could go further
There is an ongoing mantra among law enforcement authorities in Europe according to which private companies are indispensable partners in the fight against “cyber-enabled” crimes as they are often in possession of personal data relevant for law enforcement operations. For that reason, police authorities increasingly attempt to lay hands on data held by companies – sometimes in disregard to the safeguards imposed by long-standing judicial cooperation mechanisms.
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