Want to submit a blog post? Click here. By Charis Papaevangelou, Jiahong Huang, Lucia Mesquita, and Sara Creta At a recent workshop, JOLT Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) worked in multi-disciplinary teams to develop ideas for research projects that address a major issue surrounding media and technology. As the European Commission prepares to announce its much-anticipated…
Censorship
A response to this article can be found HERE. [Ed.] By Svea Windwehr and Jillian C York The Invisible Content Cartel that Undermines the Freedom of Expression Online Every year, millions of images, videos and posts that allegedly contain terrorist or violent extremist content are removed from social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.…
By Ofra Klein Since 2016, censorship of far-right groups and individuals on social media platforms has been the subject of much public discussion. With the implementation of laws to counter hateful speech, such as the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) and the EU code of conduct, social media companies are now much more responsible for regulating…
By Aryan Garg In January 2020, the federal cabinet of Pakistan approved the Citizen’s Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules to regulate social media platforms for streaming content related to terrorism, extremism, hate speech, sedition, fake news, defamation, violence, and national security. Pakistan is not the first country that has attempted to regulate social media platforms.…
By Tom Ascott Everyone has seen a meme, whether they know it or not. They’re everywhere on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The most popular ones make it off the Internet and show up in newspapers, television shows or films. You’ve almost certainly seen Pepe the Frog, and if you haven’t seen the classic ‘Woman yelling…
By Nery Ramati The need to develop legal tools in order to cope with the dangers of online extremism and terrorism has been an issue that has kept legislators, government officials, and security forces around the globe very busy in recent years. In liberal democracies, the legal challenges are intensified due to the obvious dangers…
By Jim Killock The CTIRU’s work consists of filing notifications of terrorist-related content to platforms, for them to consider removals. They say they have removed over 300,000 pieces of extremist content. Censor or not censor? The CTIRU consider its scheme to be voluntary, but detailed notification under the e-Commerce Directive has legal effect, as it…
This Blog post is a lightly edited version of a report prepared by the EU Internet Referral Unit in Europol and circulated to law enforcement agencies and member states in October 2018. It is appearing here publicly for the first time, at the request of Europol. [Ed.] Key Takeaways Non-violent material is integral to terrorists’ propaganda…
By Hoda Hashem The UK government is proposing a new UK counter-terrorism bill. But can it really strike a balance between liberty and security? The UK has a long history of controversial counter-terrorism measures. The most recent is the proposed Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Bill 2018. Home Secretary Sajid Javid recently denied that the new…
By Laurence Bindner and Raphael Gluck On April 27 2018, a Europol press release announced that new action was underway to disrupt ISIS’[1] ability to spread its propaganda online. The press release referred to an operation that commenced two days earlier, which was led by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office and coordinated with six European countries…
