Next week, the Civil Liberties [LIBE] Committee of the European Parliament is set to vote on the proposed “Regulation on preventing the dissemination of terrorist content online” that WITNESS and other civil society organizations have been strongly opposing for months. Despite the pushback on the text of this proposal in multiple civil society letters, from two other Committees of the Parliament, from the United Nations, and from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights and European Data Protection Supervisor, the LIBE Committee’s report on the regulation is weak, to say the least. Unlike the other Committee reports from the Internal Market [IMCO] Committee  and the Culture and Education [CULT] Committee, the LIBE report doesn’t address some of the most fundamental issues with this proposal. It doesn’t address the overly broad definitions of terrorist content and leaves in place one hour removals. Bottom line, it doesn’t address the fundamental problems with this proposal.

Fortunately, our friends at La Quadrature have created a website that makes it easy for you to reach out to the Members of Parliament that will be voting on this report. As the website notes:

On 21 March 2019 the European Parliament’s “Civil Liberties” committee (LIBE, 60 European Members of Parliament (MEP)) will cast the first vote on this text. As the European Election will happen right afterwards, it is likely to be our last opportunity to obtain the rejection of this text.

Their website has clear talking points and tips for calling MEPs. Check it out and call today! This isn’t the final vote, but it is important, and we’ll keep you updated.

The proposal is a serious threat to online free expression in Europe and freedom of expression globally. It is likely to inspire dangerous copycat laws and encourages increased use of opaque machine-learning algorithms to remove content—including content created by human rights defenders, alternative media, and journalists.

Leaving it up to algorithms to detect “extremist content” will create innumerable false positives and damage human rights content that is critical to ensuring accountability for perpetrators; content for which activists and journalists often risk their lives.

The ideas and concerns expressed in this letter are based on the real-world experiences of WITNESS, our partners, and the 25 other signatories. We are honored to bring together the diverse voices on this letter in defense of online freedom of expression and, specifically, the protection of human rights content.

Read more about this consortium, our opposition to the Regulation on Dissemination of Terrorist Content Online, and the full letter to the European Parliament on our blog.