Freedom of expression
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Letter to Member States calls for safeguards in Terrorist Content Regulation
On 16 December 2019, EDRi and Access Now sent a letter to EU Member States urging them ensure key safeguards on the proposed Regulation regarding the removal orders, the cross border mechanism and crucial exceptions for education, journalistic and research materials in the ongoing trilogue discussions. This letter is another step in the work that […]
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Shedding light on the Facebook content moderation centre in Athens
Following months of efforts, in early September 2019, EDRi observer Homo Digitalis managed to shed light on a case that concerns each and every Facebook user: a content moderation centre in Athens, Greece, tasked to moderate Facebook ads. As many other content moderation policies run by virtually unaccounatable private companies, this can pose threats to […]
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Hate speech online: Lessons for protecting free expression
On 21 October, David Kaye – UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression – released the preliminary findings of his sixth report on information and communication technology. They include tangible suggestions to internet companies and states whose current efforts to control hate speech online are […]
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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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Facebook users blocked simply for mentioning a name?
Merely writing or including two words, in this case “Tommy Robinson”, in a Facebook post or link is enough to get the post removed and the writer blocked. At least it seems so in Denmark and Sweden.
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Regulating online communications: Fix the system, not the symptoms
Our digital information ecosystem fails to deliver the communications landscape needed to sustain our democracies. In a problem analysis, EDRi member Bits of Freedom introduces and disentangles some of the key concepts and issues surrounding the dominant role of platforms and the resulting harms to our freedom of expression.
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Christchurch call − pseudo-counter-terrorism at the cost of human rights?
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Arden showed compassionate and empathetic leadership in her response to the Christchurch terrorist attack on a mosque in her country on 15 March 2019. On 16 May in Paris, Arden and the French President Emmanuel Macron co-launched the Christchurch Call to Action to Eliminate Terrorist and Violent Extremist […]
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SIN v Facebook: Tech giant sued over censorship in landmark case
On 7 May 2019, Civil Society Drug Policy Initiative (SIN), a Polish non-profit organisation promoting evidence-based drug policy, filed a lawsuit with the support of the Polish EDRi member Panoptykon Foundation, against Facebook in a strategic litigation case aimed at fighting private censorship on the internet.
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What the YouTube and Facebook statistics aren’t telling us
After the recent attack against a mosque in New Zealand, the large social media platforms published figures on their efforts to limit the spread of the video of the attack. What do those figures tell us?
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Filters Incorporated
On 26 March 2019, the European Parliament (EP) adopted the new copyright Directive. The music industry and collecting societies celebrated it as a victory for authors and creators, despite actual authors (along with civil society groups) being worried about the outcome.
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Terrorist Content Regulation: Successful “damage control” by LIBE Committee
Today, on 8 April 2019, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) adopted its Report on the proposed Regulation for moderation of terrorist content online. Released by the European Commission in September 2018, the proposal was very welcomed in the Council of Member States, which rapidly concluded a political agreement […]
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Open letter: Regulation on terrorist content online endangers freedom of expression
On 18 March 2019, together with seven other organisations, EDRi sent a letter to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), to share our concerns with regards to the draft Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist online content. The European Parliament Committee in Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) is set to vote on […]
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