Position Paper Archives - Page 7 of 7

Terrorist Content Online: EuroISPA concerned as Commission privatises law enforcement

12/09/2018/in 2018, Position Paper, Press

Brussels, 12 September 2018- Less than one week after the transposition of the Directive on Combatting Terrorism, the European Commission has published its proposal on “preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online”. EuroISPA strongly criticises the steps towards the further privatisation of law enforcement, as the proposal would oblige hosting service providers to proactively decide on the legality of allegedly terrorist content, with profound implications for fundamental rights and freedoms. Malcolm Hutty, Intermediary Liability Chair, stated: “Handing off responsibility for detecting terrorist content to internet intermediaries is passing off one of the State’s most fundamental responsibilities. Internet companies can neither identify terrorist content reliably, nor act as guarantors for freedom speech. Only competent public authorities have the ability to protect both our safety and our freedoms. The proper role for Internet companies is simply to act swiftly to remove material that an independent authority has determined to be illegal by due process of law”.

With this proposal the Commission mandates a large part of the Internet value chain to proactively decide on the legality and nature of content online, following a risk assessment of their service. Such requirements, combined with vaguely defined duty of care obligations are deeply worrying, raising issues of transparency, legal clarity, accountability and certainty. As a result, fundamental freedoms of expression as well as of sharing and receiving information are endangered.

The proposal’s provision for a one-hour timeframe poses risks to due process and legal clarity. This timeframe, combined with sanctions, is simply not feasible for SMEs, who do not have the resources to provide a 24/7 service. Therefore, an SME exemption should be included, in order not to disadvantage SMEs vis-à-vis larger platforms.

The included data retention obligation, running contrary to existing case-law, is equally concerning. The vast range of data covered by the scope of the Regulation will ultimately endanger European users’ privacy. Moreover, the possibility for competent authorities to renew the data retention obligations an unlimited number of times might prove extremely burdensome for SMEs.

While technological progress and service providers’ efforts have led to a higher rate of removal of terrorist content in recent months, filtering only constitutes a quick fix. It does not solve the root issues of dealing with the perpetrators or providing justice to victims.

Dedicated Single Points of Contact (SPOCs) and referral units, such as Europol’s Internet Referral Unit, work closely in collaboration with Internet Service Providers (ISPs). These existing procedures have dramatically accelerated the removal of terrorist content online. However, EuroISPA expresses its concerns over the tendency in privatising law enforcement activities, placing this responsibility in the hands of ISPs. EuroISPA calls for careful consideration of this proposal, to strive towards greater legal clarity, transparency and accountability in line with legal safeguards. Due consideration should be given to already existing voluntary processes, and the close cooperation between industry and law enforcement. This voluntary approach has proven thus far to be efficient and effective in tackling terrorist content online.

Copyright Vote – EuroISPA’s recommendations

11/09/2018/in 2018, Position Paper

Brussels, 11 September 2018 – Tomorrow, the European Parliament will vote on the Copyright Directive reform. MEPs will choose whether to support an open and free Internet or to endorse upload filters, endangering Europeans’ ability to freely share information online.

Article 13 – protecting freedom of speech and creativity

Several amendments would render platforms directly liable for the infringements made by their users. They would be forced to install upload filters and to determine the legality of allegedly illegal content. This would result in over-blocking and the censorship of legal content, thus having a chilling effect on European users’ fundamental freedoms.

Instead, EuroISPA supports the amendments formulated by the IMCO Committee, which would oblige active platforms to conclude licenses with rightsholders, without implementing upload filters. In this way, the Internet will stay open and creators will be fairly remunerated.

Article 11 – a presumption of transfer of rights

The creation of an ancillary copyright would negatively impact the development of innovative business models necessary to advance the publishing industry. Moreover, its application to snippets would constitute a dire danger to the free Internet.

Rather, EuroISPA supports compromises formulating a “presumption of transfer of rights” to news publishers, which would empower them to address copyright infringements on behalf of their authors and to conclude new licensing agreements.

As the representative of the Internet infrastructure, EuroISPA urges MEPs to support rules fostering an open Internet, respecting users’ fundamental rights and promoting creativity.

Copyright Directive: European Parliament listens to civil society and industry and rejects JURI report

05/07/2018/in 2018, Position Paper

Brussels, 5 July 2018 – Today, the European Parliament rejected the Legal Affairs’ Committee (JURI) draft report on the Copyright Directive reform, deeming it premature to enter into negotiations with the Council. EuroISPA welcomes this decision, as the current text would hurt the European Internet ecosystem and its users. We call on the European Parliament to improve the text ahead of the next Plenary session in September, by adopting a more proportionate and targeted approach.

Innocenzo Genna, Chair of EuroISPA’s Innovation and Growth Committee, stated: “Today, MEPs rightly rejected the introduction of additional press publishers’ rights and upload filters. In so doing, they listened to the concerns of hundreds of academics, internet pioneers, civil rights groups and the online sector”.

EuroISPA has consistently argued that Article 11 on press publishers’ rights would present a danger for the free and open internet and would hinder innovation, adding another layer of licensing complexity. Article 13 would mandate platforms to install incredibly expensive upload filters. This would lead to over-blocking and censorship of lawful content, thus endangering European users’ fundamental freedoms.

Therefore, we call on MEPs to amend the draft report ahead of the next Plenary session in September, to formulate copyright rules which are proportionate and targeted, to support the development of the European Internet industry and respect users’ fundamental freedoms.

E-Evidence: EuroISPA adopts Position Paper

03/07/2018/in 2018, Position Paper

Brussels, 3 July 2018- EuroISPA is the voice of the European Internet industry, representing over 2500 Internet Services Providers from across Europe and all along the Internet value chain.EuroISPA’s members have long worked with judicial authorities in their countries of operation, and thus have valuable insights on the functioning of existing cooperation. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of EuroISPA’s members are SMEs, and as such, face novel challenges from any new legal regime. EuroISPA has long been engaged on the e-evidence file, having been very active in the proposal’s preparatory stages.

EuroISPA has been a longstanding interlocuter in policy discussions on how to improve cooperation procedures, using its representative role at, for example, Europol’s EC3 communications providers advisory group, the European Commission DG JUST/DG HOME taskforce on e-evidence, and the former European Commission expert group on data retention, to advance such discussions.

EuroISPA and its members feel compelled to stress the negative consequences that will arise from any framework that privatises law enforcement and does not provide clear safeguards for ISPs. Furthermore, EuroISPA emphasises the need for SME exemptions to offset the considerable administrative, legal and financial burden incurred by the cooperation set out by the e-evidence proposal.

The position paper in full can be read here: 1806_EuroISPA_e-evidence_position_paper

EuroISPA statement on proposed Directive on Combatting Terrorism

22/02/2016/in 2016, Position Paper

Brussels – 22 February 2016 : EuroISPA members take the misuse of their services to disseminate radical and terror content very seriously, and strongly support a clear legislative framework through which swift and effective actions can be taken. Indeed, all EuroISPA members – from access providers to platforms – engage in specific cooperation with law enforcement authorities that reflects their technical position in the Internet ecosystem, to keep cyberspace safe while respecting fundamental rights.

To ensure the Directive on Combatting Terrorism provides the tools for ISPs and public authorities to best cooperate in the efforts to effectively tackle illegal terror content online, we would like to highlight:

Need for an explicit reference to the E-Commerce Directive: Directive 2000/31/EC enshrines the principles that allow for smooth cooperation between ISPs and public authorities. Indeed, the Directive’s procedural rules define the legal basis by which ISPs and public authorities can jointly tackle illegal content online while safeguarding fundamental rights – the Notice and Takedown mechanism. To ensure the Directive on Combatting Terrorism provides the adequate instruments to facilitate strong and secure public-private cooperation, a reference to Directive 2000/31/EC is essential.
Need for standardised procedures of cooperation across Europe: To ensure ISPs can swiftly remove actual illegal terror content, there is a need for standardised notification procedures across Europe. Often notices are incomplete or misleading, slowing down the removal time for illegal content. Moreover, such notices ought to originate from national judicial authorities, given the inevitable divergence in legal standards of alleged terror content across Member States.

The above principles serve as the basis by which terrorism in the online sphere can be meaningfully tackled, while ensuring that the very freedoms at stake in the efforts to combat terrorism are not undermined.

This statement was circulated to leading members of the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee. The LIBE committee is currently scrutinising the proposed Directive.

Contact details

EuroISPA