Equal access to the internet
Filter resources
-
Online content moderation: Where does the Commission stand?
The informal discussions (trilogues) between the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission are progressing on the Terrorist Content Regulation (TCO, aka “TERREG”). While users’ safeguards and rights-protective measures remain the Parliament’s red lines, the Commission presses the co-legislators to adopt what was a pre-elections public relations exercise, rather than […]
Read more
-
Spain: New law threatens internet freedoms
On 5 November 2019, the Royal Decree-Law 14/2019 that had been adopted on 31 October was published in the Spanish Official State Gazette (BOE). This was just five days before the general elections that would take place on 10 November, under an undefined “exceptionality and urgency”, and justified by the “challenges posed by new technologies […]
Read more
-
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 […]
Read more
-
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 […]
Read more
-
Interoperability: A way to escape toxic online environments
The political debate on the future Digital Services Act mostly revolves around the question of online hate speech and how to best counter it. Whether based on state intervention or self-regulatory efforts, the solutions to address this legitimate public policy objective will be manifold. In its letter to France criticising the draft legislation on hateful […]
Read more
-
Twitter banning political ads – the tip of the iceberg
Twitter seems to have learnt the lessons of the 2016 US elections. After the revelation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the link between the use of social media targeted political advertisement and the voting behaviour of specific groups of people has been explored and explained again and again. We now understand how social media platforms […]
Read more
-
Portuguese ISPs ignore telecom regulator’s recommendations
In 2018, the Portuguese telecom regulator ANACOM told the three major Portuguese mobile Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to change offers that were in breach of EU net neutrality rules. Among other things, the regulator recommended that ISPs publish their terms and conditions, and increase the data volume of their mobile data packs in order to […]
Read more
-
#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 […]
Read more
-
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. […]
Read more
-
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.
Read more
-
Von der Leyen: An ambitious agenda for digital rights
On 16 July 2019, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission with 383 votes, which is only nine votes above the minimum needed. Parts of the Socialists, Liberals, and Greens initially had doubts regarding the candidate. However, her speech in the Plenary before the vote and the agenda […]
Read more
-
EU Commission discards criticism of net neutrality enforcement
On 30 April 2019, EDRi and 31 other civil rights organisations sent an open letter to the EU Commission and BEREC. The letter criticised the lack of enforcement of current net neutrality rules in Europe. The signatories also emphasised that the EU finally needs to act against the widespread use of zero-rating practices. Zero-rating favours […]
Read more