The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution approving the Council position at first reading with a view to the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on addressing the dissemination of terrorist content online.
The proposed regulation establishes uniform rules to combat the misuse of hosting services for the dissemination of terrorist content online. It will provide Member States with additional tools to ensure the swift removal of terrorist content if necessary. It will apply to hosting service providers offering services in the EU, irrespective of their principal place of business, insofar as they disseminate information to the public.
In particular, the new Regulation provides for the following:
- the possibility for the competent authorities of the Member States to issue removal orders requiring hosting service providers to remove or block access to terrorist content in all Member States. These providers will then have to remove the content or block access to it within one hour;
- strengthening the role of the host Member State with regard to removal orders with cross-border implications through the introduction of a scrutiny procedure;
- the obligation for hosting service providers to take specific, reasonable and proportionate measures to protect their services against the dissemination of terrorist content online, the choice of such measures being left to each hosting service provider;
- a clear scope and uniform definition of terrorist content in order to fully respect fundamental rights. In particular, the Regulation provides for effective remedies, both for users whose content has been removed and for service providers wishing to make a complaint;
- rules on penalties for breaches of the Regulation by hosting service providers: hosting service providers could face penalties of up to 4% of their global turnover if they systematically or persistently fail to comply with the one-hour rule to remove or disable access to terrorist content.