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Tech Giants Say They Need More Protections In Order To Limit Illegal, Hateful Content In EU

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This article is more than 3 years old.
Updated Oct 26, 2020, 12:29pm EDT

Topline

A group representing major internet companies including Google, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and others is calling on the European Union to create new legislation that would protect the companies from legal liabilities for proactively removing hate speech and other illegal or harmful content from their platform.

Key Facts

Edima, an association representing the internet giants, has argued that such a legal safeguard would lead to “better quality content moderation” by incentivizing platforms to remove bad content while protecting free expression, Bloomberg reported on Monday.

Any new legislation on the matter would be an update to existing legal provisions for internet firms that protects them from liability for what users post on their sites.

Edima, says that current EU rules lack this crucial protection, which has a “chilling effect on service providers who want to do more to tackle illegal activity online.”

Crucial Quote

Noting that all its members want to “do more to tackle illegal content and activity online,” Edima’s Director-General Siada El Ramly added, “A European legal safeguard for service providers would give them the leeway to use their resources and technology in creative ways in order to do so.”

Key Background

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is preparing digital policy measures that will place greater responsibility on platforms for what users post on their sites. The new rules intend to curb the spread of harmful or illegal content on social media platforms. Sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have come under serious criticism for their failure to tackle inflammatory content and false news on their platform. In some cases, such actions are thought to have influenced elections like the 2016 U.S presidential elections and led to real-world violence in countries like India and Myanmar.

Tangent

Ahead of elections in the U.S. social media platforms have moved to aggressively clamp down on misinformation and hateful content on their platform. This has included labeling false claims made by President Donald Trump and limiting the reach of a New York Post article about Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter. This had led to accusations of anti-conservative bias from Republicans. In May, Trump signed an executive order that called for changes to Section 230, legislation that protects social media companies from liability over user-posted content. Democrats on the other hand have accused social media platforms of enabling the spread of misinformation and hate speech including the content shared by the president.

Further Reading

Tech Lobby Asks for EU Liability Cover to Tackle Hate Speech (Bloomberg)

What Is Section 230—And Why Does Trump Want To Change It? (Forbes)

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