Europe adopts new anti-terrorism measures on the Internet
On December 6, the European Council (EC) adopted a negotiating position on new measures to prevent the dissemination of terrorist content on the Internet.
Herbert Kickl, the Austrian Interior Minister, who currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said that online terrorist content has played a key role in most terrorist attacks in Europe. The EU's task is to protect its citizens as effectively as possible. Today's agreement allows the EU to send a strong signal to Internet operators about the urgency of tackling this issue.
The proposed measures would apply to data hosting providers operating in the EU, regardless of whether they are based in a member state or not. They would have to remove terrorist content or disable access within one hour of receiving a removal order from the authorities. Any hosting provider that fails to comply could face a fine of up to 4% of its turnover for the previous year. Internet service providers would therefore have to assess whether the content is compatible with their business conditions.
In addition, service providers will be required to meet certain preventative requirements to prevent the distribution of terrorist content through their services, depending on the risk and severity of the content. They will also be required to take proactive steps to prevent the re-emergence of previously removed content.
Cooperation between law enforcement agencies and network service providers will be improved through the establishment of contact points that facilitate the coordination of reciprocal requests. Member States are responsible for providing for penalties for non-compliance.
The proposal builds on the work of the EU Internet Forum launched in December 2015. The Council's next step will be to start discussions with the European Parliament.
Following the attacks that several EU member states have suffered in recent years, such as in Madrid (Spain) in 2004 which killed 191 people, in Saint-Denis and Paris (France) on November 13, 2015 which took the lives of relatives of 239 families, or the attacks in Brussels (Belgium) on March 22, 2016 which killed 35 people, the EU is making efforts to prevent terrorists from using the Internet to promote radicalization, recruitment and incite violence./.
