7amleh in addition to 69 other human rights and journalist organizations have written an open letter to all Members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the new EU Online Terrorist Content Law.

7amleh - The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, in addition to 69 other human rights and journalist organizations have written an open letter to all Members of the European Parliament urging them to reject the new EU Online Terrorist Content Law.

The EU is considering new legislation which could seriously endanger free speech. The regulation, which would apply throughout the EU if agreed, incentivizes online platforms to use automated tools to remove content that is deemed to be of a ‘terrorist’ nature. This is concerning, as it is impossible for automation to differentiate between parody, satire, educational material and actual terrorist content. There is a strong chance news content or evidence of war crimes or maltreatment of minorities gets removed automatically, harming our ability to get informed or freely express ourselves.

Most worrying, any EU country can issue a removal order of online content hosted anywhere in the EU within the hour, without any checks or judicial review. This could open the way for authoritarian regimes to silence their critics abroad by issuing removal orders beyond their borders. Because this must happen within the hour, online platforms will have no option but to comply with these orders to avoid fines or legal problems.

The full letter can be accessed here