Freedom of expression online
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Final Copyright “compromise”: Upload filters for everyone but Google & Co
On 21 February, the rapporteur of the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) Axel Voss issued his suggestion for a “compromise” on the Copyright reform, on which the Committee will vote in April.
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In the making: The largest internet filter Europe has ever seen
European policy makers are working on the largest internet filter we’ve ever seen.
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Don’t make your community Facebook-dependent!
Facebook is to invest tens of millions in “community leaders” – on the condition that the community leader uses the “Facebook family of apps and services”. EDRi member Bits of Freedom argues for reducing the role of Facebook in your community.
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Copyright reform: The Bulgarian Presidency strikes back
Article 13 is a key issue in the discussions on the “Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market” that have been going on since 2016. It proposes requiring services that store content on the internet for users to “take measures, such as content recognition technologies, aimed at preventing the upload of […]
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General monitoring of communications to block “undesirable” content
Increasingly, demands are made that “something be done” about “undesirable” and “harmful” material on the internet: online child abuse images and other criminal pornography, “extremism”, “incitement to violence”, “hate speech”, – and more recently, “fake news”. Organisations representing holders of intellectual property (IP) rights similarly demand that measures be taken to prevent the sharing of […]
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LEAK: European Commission’s reckless draft Recommendation on “illegal” content
In September 2017, the European Commission adopted its widely criticised “Communication on Illegal Online Content.” Now, already, due to political pressure and internal competition between various European Commission services, a new Commission proposal for a Recommendation on the same subject is close to being shared with the Council for unanimous support, albeit not being legally […]
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Germany: Constitutional complaint against intelligence agency BND
EDRi observer Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (GFF) has filed a constitutional complaint against surveillance by Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND). A new law that the German Parliament passed in October 2016 allows the BND to spy on foreign journalists. This destroys trust between journalists and their sources precisely in places where investigative journalism is […]
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Chaos Communication Congress 2017
The 34th annual four-day hacker conference Chaos Communication Congress (34c3), organised by EDRi member Chaos Computer Club, took place in Leipzig, Germany on 27-30 December 2017. The congress offered lectures, workshops and other events on various topics related to information technology and its effects on the society. For the first time, we also organised an […]
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Smashing the law without breaking it: A Commission guide
How to create a general monitoring obligation without creating a general monitoring obligation? That is the question that the Commission has been trying to answer with the Article 13 of its “Proposal for a Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market”. It aims at solving the issue of a so-called “value gap”, that is […]
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European Parliament – fighting terrorism with closed-door secrecy
The European Parliament’s Special Committee on Terrorism (TERR) was established on 6 July 2017, for a renewable twelve-month mandate. The Committee was created with the ambitious aim of addressing ostensible practical and legislative deficiencies in the fight against terrorism across the European Union (EU) and with international actors.
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CJEU hate speech case: Should Facebook process more personal data?
Austria’s Supreme Court of Justice has referred a case to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) regarding hate speech on social media platforms. The referral could have a global impact on Facebook – and ultimately on our privacy and freedom of speech.
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Can we ensure EU terrorism policies respect human rights?
During 2017, the European Union (EU) increased its arsenal its “fight against terrorism”, namely by adopting a Directive on combating terrorism and by setting up a Special Committee in the European Parliament. In partnership with the Open Society European Policy Institute (OSEPI), the European Network Against Racism (ENAR), Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the […]
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