European Commission ignores civil society concerns and sides with creative industries
Today is a sad day for Europe. Instead of listening to reason and arguments, the European Commission itself brought up in front of the CJEU, the backroom political influence of the entertainment industry has won once again. Clearly “earmarking” content means preferring the economic interests of a few powerful actors over the fundamental rights of a whole generation.
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European Commission ignores civil society concerns and sides with creative industries
Today is a sad day for Europe. Instead of listening to reason and arguments, the European Commission itself brought up in front of the CJEU, the backroom political influence of the entertainment industry has won once again. Clearly “earmarking” content means preferring the economic interests of a few powerful actors over the fundamental rights of a whole generation.
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Copyright Reform in Germany: Damage Reduction on Article 17
While waiting for the implementation guidelines from the European Commission and the CJEU ruling on whether upload filters are legal or not, some Member States are implementing the Directive. Germany has done some damage reduction in its implementation, according to former MEP and current GFF staff Felix Reda
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Antiterrorists in a bike shed – policy and politics of the Terrorist Content Regulation
The short story: an ill-fated law with dubious evidence base, targeting an important modern problem with poorly chosen measures, goes through an exhausting legislative process to be adopted without proper democratic scrutiny due to a procedural peculiarity. How did we manage to end up in this mess? And what does it tell us about the power of agenda setting the name of the “do something” doctrine?
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Spotify, don’t spy: global coalition of 180+ musicians and human rights groups take a stand against speech-recognition technology
“You can’t rock out when you’re under constant corporate surveillance. Spotify needs to drop this right now and do right by musicians, music fans, and all music workers.” - Tom Morello
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Four measures to limit the dominance of platforms like YouTube and Facebook
For our public debate, we are far too dependent on the whims of dominant companies such as Google and Facebook. The time is nigh for politicians to step in, and here are four measures they should take.
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Companies are now allowed to scan your private communications
“Any restrictions on children’s right to freedom of expression in the digital environment, such as filters, including safety measures, should be lawful, necessary and proportionate”and any digital surveillance of children “should respect the child’s right to privacy and should not be conducted routinely, indiscriminately” nor “should it take place without the right to object to such surveillance”.
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European Parliament confirms new online censorship powers
EU regulation against ‘terrorist’ content online (TERREG) was approved without a final vote by the European Parliament on April 29th. The regulation will harm our ability to freely express ourselves and access information online.
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How Austria wants to implement upload filters and ancillary copyright
EDRi's member epicenter.works sheds light on the Austrian implementation of the controversial Copyright Directive passed in the EU Parliament in 2019. As positive as some draft provisions regarding upload filters are, the Austrian implementation of ancillary copyright is poor.
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The Need for a Council of Europe Recommendation on Combatting SLAPPs
104 civil society organisations call on the Council of Europe (CoE) to act urgently on the growing threat of Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPPs).
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Coalition of human rights and journalist organisations express concerns for free speech
On 25 March, 61 human rights and journalist organisations sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament, urging them to vote against the proposed Regulation on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
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Delete first, think later
The proposed Digital Services Act wants to push online platforms to quickly remove illegal content. But it uses a sledgehammer on a most intricate challenge: moderating online speech. The result would crush freedom of expression instead of enabling it. This is the second blog post in a new series dedicated to the EU’s proposed Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act.
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Why Facebook’s proposed hate speech policy on Zionism would only add fuel to the fire
Pressured to combat surging hate speech and anti-Semitism on its platform, Facebook is looking into how it should moderate the use of the word “Zionist,” and whether to add the term as a protected category under its hate speech policy. EDRi's member Access Now doesn’t think that is a good idea, particularly given Facebook’s inability to strictly adhere to human rights principles in its content moderation practices.
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