Brussels, BELGIUM — The Computer & Communications Industry Association along with 8 other tech trade associations today sent an open letter to European Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs. The letter urges the European Council to take the necessary time to thoughtfully address outstanding concerns in the draft Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
CCIA supports the EU’s goal of reducing terrorist content online, and the letter recommends some ways to amend this draft Regulation to ensure that the approach taken is effective, proportionate and compliant with the European Charter of Fundamental Rights.
In particular, the letter recommends to narrow the scope of application, e.g. by excluding cloud services, highlights operational challenges for SMEs and asks for the deletion of the provisions requiring hosting service providers to monitor and filter data. This last requirement, coupled with unworkable deadlines and high penalties, would lead to numerous removals by strongly incentivising hosting service providers to suppress potentially legal content.
The following statement can be attributed to Maud Sacquet, Senior Policy Manager, CCIA Europe:
“CCIA supports the EU’s goal of tackling terrorist content online and urges the European Council to take the necessary time to address the concerns raised for the proposal to be effective, proportionate and compliant with fundamental rights. The requirement to monitor and filter data, combined with a one-hour timeline and stiff penalties, would for example incentivise hosting services to suppress potentially legal content and public interest speech.”