EU Urged to Keep Social Media Protections After Trump Lashes Out
(Bloomberg) -- A group that promotes free speech online is urging the European Union to keep legal protections for web platforms as the bloc prepares to overhaul 20-year-old rules that govern how the internet functions.
The group, made up of a dozen non-governmental organizations, sent the letter to EU ministers and tech commissioners on Thursday, a week after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order targeting the American equivalent of the laws, which insulate social media and other platforms from liability for the content posted by their users.
“The fundamental principle of limited liability for user-generated content must be preserved,” the group said in its letter, adding that the protection has helped thousands of online services in Europe grow as a result. It was signed by organizations including AccessNow and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
The CDT filed a lawsuit against Trump this week, claiming his executive order violates U.S. free-speech protections guaranteed by the First Amendment.
The EU is looking to modernize similar rules as part of its so-called Digital Services Act, under which it could hand platforms more responsibility for users' posts, including violent hate speech. The EU launched a consultation this week, inviting feedback from the public until September.
While the group said it broadly supported plans to update the legal framework, it also urged legislators to uphold rules prohibiting obligations for platforms to monitor their sites for problematic posts.
“General monitoring would undermine free expression and privacy by imposing ongoing and indiscriminate control of all online content with mandatory use of technical filtering tools,” it said.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Signature Play: The Classic Cocktail Is Dead. Or Is It?
Classic cocktails are disappearing from India's cocktail menus. But they're still being ordered, taught to bartenders and borrowed from. So, who's really having the last drink?
-
A New Samvat Wishlist: Inclusive Prosperity And Human Development
India has strengthened its economic foundations through infrastructure, digital access and enterprise. Its next growth chapter must deepen productivity, create better livelihoods and widen participation in prosperity.
-
Love, Sex Aur Dhokha: The Audacious Plot To Spy On Jensen Huang
A Taipei dinner, a Singapore chip buyer and a suspected Chinese asset: inside the alleged spy operation that got close to NVIDIA's Jensen Huang.
-
Ten Things I Learnt This Samvat
Patience can be a trap. Cheap stocks can stay cheap. Leverage can wipe you out. What did Samvat 2082 teach us? Niraj Shah writes on 10 lessons from the year gone by.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
