December 4, 2019 · Blogs | Information democracy | Freedom of expression online

France’s law on hate speech gets a thumbs down

France’s draft legislation on hate speech (also called the “Avia law”) received a lot of criticism. The draft law was approved in July 2019 by the French National Assembly and will be examined by the Senate in December. It would oblige platforms to remove flagged hateful content within 24 hours or face fines. The Czech […]

Read more

 

July 21, 2023 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Freedom of expression online | Privacy and confidentiality | Surveillance and data retention

Council poised to endorse mass surveillance as official position for CSA Regulation

The Council of EU Member States are close to finalising their position on the controversial CSA Regulation. Yet the latest slew of Council amendments – just like the European Commission’s original – endorse measures which amount to mass surveillance and which would fundamentally undermine end-to-end encryption.

Read more

 

May 25, 2016 · Blogs

European fundamental rights to be regulated by companies

Today, on 25 May, the European Commission published two new proposals of their Digital Single Market strategy: its update of the Directive on audiovisual media services (ADVMS) and a Communication on online platforms, together with the evidence document for the platforms Communication. The Communication on Platforms worries us the most. For instance, the proposals with […]

Read more

 

May 26, 2016 · Blogs

European Parliament confirms that “Privacy Shield” is inadequate

The European Parliament has adopted a Resolution on the “Privacy Shield”. This is the new agreement to permit data to be transferred from the EU to the USA. The previous agreement – “Safe Harbour” – was overturned by the European Court of Justice in October 2015. The Parliament’s resolution confirms that the new agreement has […]

Read more

 

August 29, 2012 · Blogs

EDRi's answer on BEREC's Net Neutrality consultation

EDRi has answered the BEREC Consultation on Net Neutrality that ended on 31 July 2012, underlining that BEREC, the European Commission and national telecom regulators should be acting to stop the Net neutrality breaches and to ensure that services failing to maintain open access to the Internet, should not be able to refer to themselves […]

Read more

July 13, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Privacy and confidentiality

Civil society calls for the protection of privacy in ePrivacy

On the 13th of July, EDRi, together with Privacy International, IT-Politisk Forening and Access Now sent a letter to the TELE Working Party of the EU Council regarding the dangers for privacy protections associated with the latest proposals brought forward by the Austrian Council Presidency. The letter comments the developments and argues that such changes […]

Read more

 

June 28, 2017 · Blogs

Denmark allows massive retention of location data for mobile internet

On 24 May 2017, the Danish telecom regulator announced its decision concluding that the retention of location data for mobile internet usage is lawful. With the decision, the regulator allowed for massive data retention, which seriously undermines citizens’ right to privacy, since it means they can be tracked at all times and the data is […]

Read more

 

June 3, 2016 · Blogs

Guide to the Code of Conduct on Hate Speech

On 31 May, the European Commission, together with Facebook, YouTube (Google), Twitter and Microsoft, agreed a “code of conduct” (pdf) on fighting hate speech. We believe that the code of conduct will damage enforcement of laws on hate speech, and undermine citizens’ fundamental rights. In a joint press release, EDRi and Access Now have therefore […]

Read more

 

June 1, 2015 · Blogs

Net Neutrality – building on success

[This post is published jointly with Access] Tomorrow, the European Parliament will decide whether or not it supports a proposal for anti-Net Neutrality legislation (PDF – last publicly available document) advanced by the representatives of the EU member states (“the Council of the EU”). For the past few months, the Latvian presidency of the Council […]

Read more

June 6, 2016 · Blogs

SAVE THE INTERNET: Good work by BEREC undermined by industry lobbying

Today, 6 June 2016, the Body of European Regulators of Electronic Communications (BEREC) launched the long-awaited public consultation on the implementation of the net neutrality Regulation.

Read more

 

July 25, 2018 · Blogs | Privacy and data protection | Biometrics | Profiling practices

Smart Borders: the challenges remain a year after its adoption

After the initial rejection of the Smart Borders package in 2013, the European Parliament voted again on 25 October 2017 to finally adopt it, including the Entry/Exit System (EES) and amendments to integrate it into the Schengen Borders Code.

Read more

 

July 11, 2017 · Blogs

Latest copyright votes: Filtering, blocking & half-baked compromises

On 11 July, two Committees in the European Parliament voted on their Opinions on European Commission’s proposal for a Copyright Directive: the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) and the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE). CULT decided to abandon all reason and propose measures that contradict existing law on monitoring of online content. […]

Read more