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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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?reference=2018/0331(COD)&l=en

[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-adjusts-copyright-rules-to-the-digital-age/

[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