tl;dr
The regulation on preventing online dissemination of terrorist content, as
well as a general restructuring of the intermediary protection rules, will
be two hot topics for the next European Commission and Parliament after the
elections. Copyright is a wrap and it is now up to the Member States to
transpose it.
This and previous reports on Meta:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Monitor
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TERREG
On April 17th, after 8 months since the European Commission first presented
its version of the “Regulation on Preventing the Dissemination of Terrorist
Content Online” (TERREG), the Civil Liberties (LIBE) committee report was
adopted by the European Parliament. [1] Let’s recap: the EC planned an
overhaul of free speech under blurry definitions and unproportionate
measures. Two Parliamentary Committees - Internal Market (IMCO) and Culture
(CULT) - presented much better versions of the regulation. The lead LIBE,
at first, presented a version retracting the positive thinking. Then,
thanks to the work of some of the shadow rapporteurs and civil society
input, the the final report offered some mitigation.
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The parliamentary vote [2] means that the rapporteur is going to the
trilogues with a text that does not include referrals, has no proactive
measures (at least not mandated by law) and provides for some judicial
oversight on removal orders. Content mentioned in an order, however, will
need to be removed within 1 hour of receiving it. An attempt to change it
failed by 3 votes in the plenary.
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Next stage, the Trilogues, are expected to happen in the Fall. It can also
be expected that the European Commission will want to bring back the
referrals and proactive measures into the final text. So our work with that
file is far from done.
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Copyright
Two weeks ago the Council gave the final “green light” for the Copyright in
the Digital Single Market Directive. [3] In the end Italy, Luxembourg,
Poland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Finland voted against, while Belgium,
Estonia and Slovenia abstained (which has the same effect as voting
against). Still, the necessary double majority was reached.
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The final text [4] will soon be published in the Official Journal of the EU
and from that date on Member States will have 24 months to transpose it
into national law. The European Commission has stated that they would like
to work on non-binding best practice implementation guidelines for Article
17 (formerly Article 13, the one with upload filters). We expect most
Member States to participate and make use of them. Procedure and timeline
are still to be announced. In the meanwhile, it looks like France is keen
on transposing the Directive without additional delays. The Estonian
government has asked stakeholders about their views on implementation. Did
you hear about your government doing something in this regard already?
Please let us know!
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E-Commerce Directive Reform
We may consider it as certain that the next European Commission will
propose a reform of the E-Commerce Directive, most likely turning it into a
Regulation. This means that intermediary liability will be directly
discussed and redrawn during the next legislative term. So upload filters,
deletions, stay-downs are going to be a central topic. We need to have a
positive vision for what a regime change may look like in order to be a
serious stakeholder in the debates. If you would like to join a working
group this, please let us know!
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BIG FAT BRUSSELS MEETING
The Big Fat Brussels Meeting will be on 1-2 June, the weekend after the EP
elections. We will be setting up our transposition work and will be making
plans of how to reach out the newly elected MEPs. If you want to attend,
but can’t afford the travel, please let us know! [5]
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[1]
https://oeil.secure.europarl.europa.eu/oeil/popups/ficheprocedure.do?refere…
[2]http://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/TA-8-2019-0421_EN.pdf
[3]
https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/04/15/eu-adjus…
[4https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/PE-51-2019-INIT/en/pdf
[5]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Commerce_Directive_2000
[6]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/EU_policy/Big_Fat_Brussels_Meeting_VI
Dear All,
A quick update: the LIBE report was adopted for terrorist content
regulation. This means no referrals, no proactive measures (at least not
mandated by the law) and some judicial oversight on removal orders. Content
mentioned in the order will need to be remoded within 1h. I think Wikimedia
Policy twitter account will run a thread on this soon, which we will share
once it is up.
Next stage is the Trilogues that we expect to happen in the Fall. I will be
back with some plans on sensitising governments to the issue, especially
the Finnish because of the upcoming EU Presidency (July-December 2019).
Thanks to everyone who spent time contacting MEPs on this in the recent
days!
Best wishes,
Anna
--
Anna Mazgal
EU Policy Advisor
Wikimedia
anna(a)wikimedia.be
@a2na
mobile: +32 487 222 945
51 Rue du Trône
BE-1050 Brussels
Dear All,
Civil Liberties committee has just adopted MEP Dalton's compromises as the
report on the Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist
content online. There are some amendments added that require further
analysis but the key changes are positive:
1. Improvements on definition of terrorist content with exclusions to
artistic, journalistic, educational and research purposes
2. Specific measures referring to platforms receiving a substantial number
of removal orders; the regulation applies to those that make content
available to the public (so a positive limitation)
3. Referrals removed from the proposal with a caveat that Europol referrals
should be taken as a priority by platforms when content is flagged (in
recital)
4. Specific measures steer away from content filtering and forbid general
monitoring.
Unfortunately, the 1h deadline for removing content has been sustained.
Interestingly, Rapporteur Dalton called out the European Commission on not
understanding the democratic parliamentary process, applying pressure on
quick adoption of the file and dismissing debate on controversial issues as
unnecessary and going against the goals of the regulation. It is quite a
serious accusation as the EC is not supposed to pressure MEPs that way.
After the text is published we will have a more in-depth analysis of other
changes and how the whole proposal could affect Wikimedia. The vote in the
plenary is planned for next week. After that - the trilogues.
Happy to take on any questions you may have regarding the report.
best wishes,
Anna
--
Anna Mazgal
EU Policy Advisor
Wikimedia
anna(a)wikimedia.be
@a2na
mobile: +32 487 222 945
51 Rue du Trône
BE-1050 Brussels