Freedom of expression online
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The Civil Liberties Committee rejects #censorshipmachine
On 20 November 2017, the European Parliament (EP) Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) voted against the mandatory implementation of “censorship machines” (aka upload filters) in its Opinion on the Copyright Directive proposal. After a long process and diligent hard work led by Polish Members of the European Parliment (MEP) Michal Boni […]
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School of Rock(ing) Copyright 2017: (Re-)united to #fixcopyright!
In September and October 2017, EDRi, Communia and Wikimedia co-organised a series of copyright-related workshops: School of Rock(ing) Copyright. The goal of the workshops was to engage local activists, researchers and associations interested in copyright to create new spaces of action at the national and European Union (EU) level.
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The privacy movement and dissent: Protest
This is the fourth blogpost of a series, originally published by EDRi member Bits of Freedom, that explains how the activists of a Berlin-based privacy movement operate, organise, and express dissent. The series is inspired by a thesis by Loes Derks van de Ven, which describes the privacy movement as she encountered it from 2013 […]
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Leak: Three EU countries join forces for restrictions & copyright chaos
Leaked documents concerning the Copyright Directive show that France, Spain and Portugal have joined forces in the Council of the European Union to attack the cornerstones of internet freedom in Europe. The documents show that the three countries propose elevating fighting copyright violations to a special status – above combating terrorism, child abuse and serious […]
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Dutch NRA: T-Mobile may continue to violate net neutrality
EDRi member Bits of Freedom asked the Dutch national regulatory authority, Authority for Consumers and Market (ACM), to test the mobile operator T-Mobile’s subscription against the new European rules that protect net neutrality, to verify whether its “Data-free Music” service infringes upon the principle of net neutrality. On 11 October 2017, the ACM ruled T-Mobile […]
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EU Council legal services unclear about censorship filters
On 16 October 2017, Politico leaked the response from the Legal Services of the Council of the European Union (CLS) to the questions raised by six member states about the legality of the upload filter proposal in the Article 13 of the Copyright Directive proposal. As the censorship filter is about restricting fundamental rights, it […]
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Civil society calls for the deletion of the #censorshipmachine
Today, 16 October, European Digital Rights (EDRi), together with 56 other civil society organisations, sent an open letter to EU decision makers. The letter calls for the deletion of the Article 13 of the Copyright Directive proposal, pointing out that monitoring and filtering of internet content that it proposes breach citizens’ fundamental rights.
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EU’s plans on encryption: What is needed?
On 18 October 2017, the European Commission is expected to publish a Communication on counter-terrorism, which will include some lines on encryption. What is encryption? Why is it important? When we send an encrypted message (or store an encrypted document), no one else but the intended recipient can read it using a unique key. So […]
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TiSA impact assessment report ignores crucial human rights concerns
In 2013, the European Commission decided to subject the draft Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) to a Trade Sustainability Impact Assessment (SIA) in support of the negotiations. The Final Report, which was published in July 2017, fails to address several key fundamental rights concerns.
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No justification for internet censorship during Catalan referendum
The ruthless efficiency with which the Spanish government censored the internet ahead of the referendum on Catalan independence foreshadowed the severity of its crackdown at polling places on 1 October. EDRi member Electronic Frontier Foundation previously wrote about one aspect of that censorship; the raid of the .cat top-level domain registry. But there was much […]
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Commission’s position on tackling illegal content online is contradictory and dangerous for free speech
Today, on 28 September, the European Commission published its long-awaited Communication “Tackling Illegal Content Online”. This follows a leaked copy we previously analysed. The document puts virtually all its focus on internet companies monitoring online communications, in order to remove content that they decide might be illegal. It presents few safeguards for free speech, and […]
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Leaked document: Does the EU Commission really plan to tackle illegal content online?
On 14 September, Politico published a leaked draft of the European Commission’s Communication “Tackling Illegal Content Online”. The Communication contains “guidelines” to tackle illegal content, while remaining coy in key areas. It is expected to be officially published on 28 September.
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