How the EU tackles illegal content online
Security has been set as one of the main priorities of the EU Commission. Here, Juncker’s toolkit aims to protect European citizens from illegal content online such as terroristic propaganda, hate speech and fake news.
COUNTER TERRORISM:
• Detecting and removing, as quickly as possible, terroristic propaganda and content from the web and encouraging internet companies to do the same.
• Using heavy sanctions to condemn any kind of incitement, promotion or glorification of terrorism online (see the EU Legislation on combatting terrorism).
• The launch of the EU Internet Forum in 2015, is a spot used to gather governments, EU Agencies, academics, Internet Companies together.
• Supporting civil society, grass roots organisations and credible voices in campaigns showing counter-narratives to terrorism under the Civil Society Empowerment Programme.
COUNTER RACIST AND XENOPHOBIC HATE SPEECH:
• The Framework Decision on Combatting Racism and Xenophobia
• Code of Conduct: Internet companies as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Microsoft and YouTube have joined the Code of Conduct on countering illegal hate speech online , committing to combat illegal online hate speech in Europe.
COUNTER CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE ONLINE:
The Commission is increasingly engaged in fighting the dark side of the internet. EU funds are used to promote several campaigns with the aim to raise awareness in civil society about the risks young people may encounter on the internet.
• Safer Internet Centres empowering children, parents and educators through information sessions, events, and materials offering advice dealing with issues such as cyber bullying and helplines.
• The Directive on combating the sexual exploitation and abuse of children and child pornography explores special measures to denounce and punish child sexual abuses on the web. Prison is contemplated for anyone accessing to child pornography and child sexual abuse material.
• The new Audiovisual Media Services Directive, currently under negotiation, requires a more effective parental control and mechanisms denying access to children to pornography and other harmful content.
COUNTER DISINFORMATION:
Healthy democracies depend on high quality information. New technologies provides an enormous amount of dynamic and diverse information which has the potential to make political life more inclusive and participatory, by enabling citizens to think critically, but the growing spread of mass online disinformation is contaminating our right to free and independent media.
Harmful and misleading content erodes media pluralism and they foster distrust and negative feelings towards the institutions, as Euroscepticism highlights. This is why the European Commission is involved in a wide range of activities tackling fake news.
• The European Communication’s publication, Tackling online disinformation: a European approach, indicates their key principles and objectives on the challenges associated with disinformation online. It suggests a comprehensive European approach to tackle the phenomenon effectively.
• The East StratCom Task Force, was originally set up to address Russia’s ongoing disinformation campaigns, and now also develops communication products and campaigns focused on better explaining EU policies in the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). The main aim is strengthening the media environment in the Eastern Partnership region, analyzing disinformation trends, reporting on disinformation narratives, and raising awareness of disinformation.
• The Final report of the High Level Expert Group on Fake News and Online Disinformation (“the HLEG”) was established in January 2018 when a high-level group of experts assembled to establish a policy agenda to counter fake news and the spread of disinformation online.
Next steps:
Campaigning for digital ecosystems based on pluralism, transparency and high-quality information that empowers citizens against disinformation and defend our democracies. The future steps designed by European Commission President, Claude Juncker, are focused on monitoring the implementation of these measures and a public consultation will be soon launched to determine the progress and the effects of the initiatives listed above.
