EuroISPA Annual Policy Report 2022 – Brussels Outlook 2023

EuroISPA is delighted to present to you its Annual Policy Report 2022 – Brussels Outlook 2023, which contains an overview of the Association’s main activities of 2022, with dedicated insights on its policy focus areas, as well as a presentation of what’s ahead in 2023.

In 2022, EuroISPA and its committees were busy bringing their work forward on a number of key policy areas for European ISPs, and contributed to shaping the debate around policy files such as the proposed CSAM Regulation, the Digital Services Act, the upcoming Regulation on the online piracy of live events, and more.

But other than EuroISPA’s work in the past work, this report will give a chance to have an outlook on what the EU policy landscape holds in 2023 on a number of relevant areas for the European Internet industry.

Our officers and committee chairs describe the opportunities and the challenges coming up, and the broader vision of the association going forward

Lastly, read the report to dive into EuroISPA’s 25th anniversary celebrations, with a timeline of our dedicated work and expansion during over two decades, and our view for the years to come.

Once again, EuroISPA is happy to have worked alongside our members with the goal of contributing to the development of the sector to ensure its safety and sustainability.

We hope that you enjoy reading our Annual Policy Report 2022 – Brussels Outlook 2023!

EuroISPA and other European Internet industry associations join forces and publish a joint statement on the proposed CSAM Regulation

European industry associations ACT | The App Association, CCIA Europe, CISPE Cloud, Dot Europe, eco, EuroISPA, FiCom, ISPA Austria and ITI have published a joint industry statement in which they call the European Commission to amend some key points of the proposed Regulation laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

The associations and their members, active in the European Internet industry, agreed on the importance of the European Commission’s proposal to ensure the EU is committed to making the digital space safe for everyone, especially for children.

However, they are now together drawing attention to how certain measures contained in the proposed Regulation need to be amended in order to reach the goals the Regulation is set to achieve.

To do so, signatories have formulated recommendations to amend six key aspects of the proposal:

  • The narrowing of the scope and definitions
  • The risk assessment, mitigation and reporting
  • The inclusion of voluntary measures
  • The use of detection, removal and blocking orders
  • The importance of safeguarding encryption
  • The role of the EU Centre

This joint industry statement is the result of a substantial joint effort between the signatories, coordinated by EuroISPA, that shows the unified commitment of several associations with a diverse membership and active in the sector at European level to protect children online.

EuroISPA hosts expert roundtable on privacy and encryption

On Thursday, 23rd of March 2023, EuroISPA hosted an in-person expert roundtable on privacy and encryption, organised in the context of the European Commission’s proposal for a Regulation to prevent and combat child sexual abuse.

The event gathered a distinguished expert panel comprised of Mr Matthew Green, Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins University and expert on applied cryptography and cryptographic engineering, Ms Arda Gerkens, CEO and founder of EOKM, as well as Ms Ella Jakubowska, Senior Policy Advisor at EDRi.

EuroISPA’s Board member, Thomas Bihlmayer (eco), moderated the discussion and introduced EuroISPA’s views from its position as a constructive contributor to child protection and privacy debates, thanks to its diverse membership (hotlines, ISPs of all sizes, platforms, cloud infrastructure services, etc.) that is at the forefront of the efforts to protect children online.

He highlighted EuroISPA’s commitment with the Commission’s objective to prevent and combat child sexual abuse and noted concerns over several aspects of the proposal. He focused on the operability of the regulation and on the dangers of breaking encryption, which will have a direct impact on the technical Internet infrastructure and impede efforts to create an Internet which enhances trust, user privacy, and freedom of expression.

Professor Matthew Green expressed concerns about the lack of understanding of the technical implications of the Commission’s proposal, and the possible harm that could bring to the security of global communications systems. During his intervention, he stressed the technical limitations of such proposed measures and the issue of over-relying on them, considering encryption is a very young area. For him, the proposal would benefit from an in-depth evaluation by scientists and researchers in Europe, which in his view should be seen as a pre-condition for mandating new technologies. (He shared his intervention in a more extensive version on his blog).

Representing the Dutch hotline, Arda Gerkens highlighted the issues of weakening encryption, compromising the security both for children and adults. She also noted the potential positive points, especially when it comes to the creation of a EU Centre as a centre for knowledge and support in the EU. She further explained how the approach of the Netherlands to fight child sexual abuse is working, noting some of the main elements that could be brought to EU level.

Finally, Ella Jakubowska raised the perspective of civil society. She explained why the proposed measures will lead to unreliable client-side scanning practices, undermining end-to-end encryption and making our devices more vulnerable to attacks from malicious actors, all without addressing the core issues or finding the right solutions to tackle child sexual abuse.

The panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session were participants had the opportunity to exchange about the compatibility of these measures with privacy legislation, the potential for improvement of scanning technologies as well as other solutions to allow fighting child sexual abuse without hindering privacy safeguards and fundamental rights.

This session is one of the different actions that EuroISPA is taking around encryption, privacy and the Commission proposal to fight Child Sexual Abuse Material online.

If you would like to know more about EuroISPA’s work on the topic, you can contact [email protected].

To read our Position Paper on the proposed CSAM Regulation, click on the button below.

EuroISPA Annual Policy Report 2021

January 17th 2023 – EuroISPA is delighted to launch its Annual Policy Report 2021, which contains an overview of the Association’s main activities of 2021, as well as dedicated insights on its policy focus areas.

The year 2021 was a busy and eventful one, with EuroISPA working on several important policy areas. Our Association has continuously worked on files dealing with intermediary liability, cybersecurity, safer internet, innovation, and data protection. EuroISPA was able to progress on priority files such as the Digital Services Act (DSA), and the Directive on Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation, among many others.

In the year of its 25th anniversary, EuroISPA is happy to have worked alongside our members and to have actively participated in the discussions of key files and followed the legislative developments at EU level. Our mission is to contribute to the development of the sector to ensure its safety and sustainability.

We hope that you enjoy reading our 2021 Annual Policy Report, that it offers you some interesting insights into the ongoing work of EuroISPA and, finally, that it reflects the commitment of our membership to promote a sustainable approach in the ISP sector.

Happy reading!