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.
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EU Commissioners candidates spoke: State of play for digital rights
On 1 November 2019, the new College of European Commissioners – comprising 27 representatives (one from each EU Member State), rather than the usual 28, thanks to Brexit – are scheduled to take their seats for the next five years, led by incoming President-elect, Ursula von der Leyen.
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Net neutrality overhaul: 5G, zero-rating, parental control, DPI
The Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) is currently in the process of overhauling their guidelines on the implementation of the Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, which forms the legal basis of the EU’s net neutrality rules. At its most recent plenary, BEREC produced new draft guidelines and opened a public consultation on this draft. […]
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#PrivacyCamp20: Technology and Activism
The 8th annual Privacy Camp will take place in Brussels on 21 January 2020. With the focus on “Technology and Activism”, Privacy Camp 2020 will explore the significant role digital technology plays in activism, enabling people to bypass traditional power structures and fostering new forms of civil disobedience, but also enhancing the surveillance power of […]
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The sixth attempt to introduce mandatory SIM registration in Romania
A tragic failure by the police to save a teenage girl who was abducted but managed to call the 112 emergency number three times before she was murdered, led to the adoption of a new Emergency Ordinance in Romania. The law introduces several measures to improve the 112 system, one of which is mandatory SIM card registration for all prepaid users. Currently approximately ten million prepaid SIM cards are used in Romania.
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EU copyright dialogues: The next battleground to prevent upload filters
On 15 October, the European Commission held the first of the stakeholder dialogues, mandated by Article 17 of the EU copyright Directive, inviting 65 organisations to help map current practices, and opening the door for deeper collaboration in the future.
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Trilogues on terrorist content: Upload or re-upload filters? Eachy peachy.
On 17 October 2019, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union (EU) and the European Commission started closed-door negotiations, trilogues, with a view to reaching an early agreement on the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online. The European Parliament improved the text proposed by the European Commission by addressing its […]
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Open letter to EU Member States: Deliver ePrivacy now!
On 11 October 2019, EDRi, together with four other civil society organisations, sent an open letter to EU Member States, to urge to conclude the negotiations on the ePrivacy Regulation. The letter highlights the urgent need for a strong ePrivacy Regulation in order to tackle the problems created by the commercial surveillance business models, and […]
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Content regulation – what’s the (online) harm?
In recent years, the national legislators in EU Member States have been pushing for new laws to combat negative societal phenomena such as hateful or terrorist content online. These regulatory efforts have one common denominator: they shift the focus from conditional intermediary liability to holding intermediaries directly responsible for the dissemination of illegal content on their platforms.
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Right a wrong: ePrivacy now!
When the European Commission proposed to replace the outdated and improperly enforced 2002 ePrivacy Directive with a new ePrivacy Regulation in January 2017, it marked a cautiously hopeful moment for digital rights advocates across Europe. With the backdrop of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted in May 2018, Europe took a giant leap ahead […]
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Why weak encryption is everybody’s problem
Representatives of the UK Home Department, US Attorney General, US Homeland Security and Australian Home Affairs have joined forces to issue an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg. In their letter of 4 October, they urge Facebook to halt plans for end-to-end (aka strong) encryption across Facebook’s messaging platforms, unless such plans include “a means for […]
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CJEU ruling on fighting defamation online could open the door for upload filters
Today, on 3 October 2019, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) gave its ruling in the case C‑18/18 Glawischnig-Piesczek v Facebook. The case is related to injunctions obliging a service provider to stop the dissemination of a defamatory comment. Some aspects of the decision could pose a threat for freedom of expression, in particular that of political dissidents who may be accused of defamatory practices.
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CJEU on cookies: ‘Consent or be tracked’ is not an option
European Digital Rights (EDRi) welcomes the CJEU's confirmation that under the current data protection framework, cookies can only be set if users have given consent that is valid under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
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