Comments to European Commission on Notice-and-Action

CDT submitted these brief comments in response to a questionnaire from the European Commission on notice-and-action procedures (including the more familiar notice-and-takedown) and Internet intermediaries.  The comments offer the following principles for ensuring that notice-and-action frameworks do not come at the expense of online free expression and access to information:

• Intermediaries need clear guidance regarding what constitutes a valid notice.
• Actions required of intermediaries must be narrowly tailored and proportionate.
• Safeguards are necessary to mitigate risks of abuse.
• Intermediaries should not be required to take actions that would create a de facto ongoing obligation to monitor.
• Action requirements should take account of differences between conduit and host services.
• Actions that result in content takedown must be limited to contexts where illegality is straightforward.
• Notice-and-action requirements must avoid undermining existing liability protections.