CDT Co-Signs Letter Calling on Commission to Act Against Germany’s Draft Network Enforcement Law

CDT has signed a joint letter on the draft German law that threatens to fine large social media platforms if they do not react swiftly to take down certain types of content. Together with other civil and human rights organisations, as well as industry bodies representing the Internet technology, we call on the European Commission to ensure compliance of the draft German law with EU law, including the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The draft law would certainly undermine freedom of expression and information as previously highlighted. Moreover, the draft law would also oblige social networks to immediately remove or block any copies of the unlawful content located on their platforms, thus implying upload filtering mechanisms to be put in place to automatically take down content. This type of obligation runs counter established EU law and jurisprudence, as we have warned in the EU copyright law reform debate.