Freedom of Expression

As policy-makers on both sides of the Atlantic seek to curb the power of the 'big tech' leviathans, is anti-trust the best tool to address speech online?

When the four titans of tech testified at a recent hearing in the US Congress, it was meant to be about anti-trust and market abuses. The technology companies were indeed put on the defensive about their monopolistic practices, but some of the most difficult exchanges were about content and censorship. It raises the issue about their power over speech, which presents a far more complex question for lawmakers than

In the face of over 50,000*coronavirus-related deaths in the UK alone - potentially as high as 60,000* - why should we care about digital rights?

Beside the grave risks to life posed by Covid-19, your rights in using Internet services may seem like a lower priority. However, as lockdown measures make entire societies digitally-dependent, it has never been more important to safeguard people's activities online.

The coronavirus public health emergency - and specifically the lockdown measures - changed the 'normal' way of life overnight as entire societies were obliged to stay at home. These measures created an environment where digital systems became the arteries of social and economic life for entire populations. The situation created a universal dependence on digital communications that has arguably not been the case previously. While lockdown is easing, the digital dependence is likely to remain high.

Will they dump the upload filter? Moves are afoot in the European Parliament to protect free speech and reject the imposition of upload filters in two key pieces of legislation before the current sitting of the European Parliament. The Copyright Directive has been stalled by the Council, with a scheduled trilogue cancelled. Meanshlie, amendments to delete requirements for proactive monitoring in the Terrorism Directive are being tabled in two committees.

How far does the French-British action plan against terrorism on the Internet impose new liabilities on Internet companies? Where does an upload filter become prior censorship?

When Theresa May met the French President Emmanuel Macron in June this year they agreed a joint proposal to suppress terrorist content content on the Internet. They vowed to work together to block content, freeze user accounts and get access to encrypted content. This would involve stay down measures and access to personal data behind IP addresses. The plan has received little coverage, no doubt overshadowed by much bigger geo-political agendas. In this post, I consider how the Franco-British Action Plan puts pressure on Internet intermediaries and raises questions for human rights online.

In seeking a response to terrorism, how can we protect our democratic values online as well as offline? Theresa May says there should be no safe spaces for online extremism, but attacking online platforms, and laying the blame entirely at their feet, is at best unhelpful and fundamentally problematic. How should we, as a society, ensure safeguards against the unintended consequences of such measures?