Policy Observatory
The European Commission started two public consultations Thursday, as part of its Digital Single Market strategy. One is about the role of online platforms such as Google and Amazon, and asks whether they should be more transparent. The other asks citizens about their opinion and experience with geo-blocking.
The Commission wants to hear from citizens, manufacturers, retailers (especially SMEs), right holders, data and cloud service providers and users, as well as all those involved in the collaborative economy.
Please see the press release here.
This paper deals with article 13 of the Commission’s proposal which introduces a filtering obligation on online platforms that allow users to upload content. The proposal fails to establish clear rules for internet users that make it clear how they can share and remix content legally. Instead it introduces a filtering requirement for online platforms that can potentially serve as a censorship machine and will violate users’ fundamental rights and distort the existing legal framework. From COMMUNIA's perspective article 13 and the related recitals should be deleted from the proposal. You can download a pdf version of the position paper here.
On June 8, the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee will decide its standpoint. The IMCO committee is jointly responsible for the Parliament position on one of the most controversial parts of the reform: the introduction of mandatory censorship filters on online services such as social media.
Today it was revealed that MEP Pascal Arimont from the European People’s Party (EPP) is trying to sabotage the Parliamentary process, going behind the negotiators of the political groups and pushing a text that would make the Commission’s original bad proposal look tame in comparison. If he succeeds again, the result would once more do the opposite of what the Committee is tasked to do: Protecting European consumers.
The European Commission publishes a set of guidelines and principles for online platforms, aimed to fight against illegal content online in cooperation with national authorities, Member States and other relevant stakeholders.
On 10 October 2017, the European Commission published the “draft principles and guidance on eID interoperability for online platforms” on the electronic Identification And Trust Services (eIDAS) observatory. Building on the eIDAS Regulation, the Commission would like to extend the scope of use for the eIDs to online platforms, in addition to public services.
The governments of France, Spain and Portugal want to double down on a law proposed by the European Commission that would force all kinds of internet platforms to install a “censorship machine” to surveil all uploads and try to prevent copyright infringement.